Transformers: The Guardians Part 1
by CRAZMech Productionz
Summary: Between universes there are the odd, the wicked, the good, and the mentally insane. A different breed of mechs have been found and now Prime and his crew have to learn to live with them... Armada/Energon: GGG
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 ~ "Through the gaping hole we go…"

A light shined over a table, two sat up in chairs on opposite sides. Two deck of cards laid upon the table, one face upward the other faced down; there was a grunt and fingers twiddled, suddenly placing a card in the face-up pile. The one who sat on the opposite end grinned. "Rummy..."

The other growled. "No it's not!"

"Oh please Prime..." His blue hand pointed to the pile. "Three of the same card, same number, same color: that is clearly Rummy."

Optimus Prime gritted his teeth, damnit he was right. With that he threw his cards up in the air, defeated at the sight of Megatron's grin. "You cheated..." Prime said with crossed arms, his mouth holding a defeated frown that was exposed to the world before him. Prime no longer wore his mask, better to hide his identity since he KNEW very well that no one has ever seen him without his mask. What did he do with it? The answer was simple, because it was currently hiding Megatron's large grin.

The Decepticon leader himself shuffled his deck of cards. "Shall we play again?" He flipped the cards in his blue hands. Purple, black, dark green and grey had changed to blue, silver, and a much lighter green. After his little 'sacrifice' to Unicron, Megatron had gone through some changes; when Prime had finally found him with Scavenger and Sideswipe he was already upgraded.

Optimus made a face. "No. We've been at this for 2 hours! I'm getting kind of bored... Besides you cheat, " he stood up from the table.

Megatron frowned under his new mask, and put the cards away in the table's drawer. He watched as Prime made his way from the table to the couch, which sat in front of a large holo-screen. They were currently in the living room of their ship, "The Guardian" which they had found in a junkyard outside approximately four years ago. They had fixed it, painted it, and called it their own.

Optimus turned on the screen, flipping through the channels and finding nothing to watch. He shut it off and tilted his head back, letting out a groan of boredom, "We have been flying through space for a week now and not a single planet...I'm starting to go crazy. "

Megatron shrugged his shoulders. "Well you wanted to go after the largest bounty and that just so happens to be many light-years away..." His tone had changed, a little more settled and polite but then again he was still the same ol' Megatron. The door to the room had swished open and Scavenger walked in with his grand-old pipe in his mouth, he looked at the two "supposedly dead" leaders.

"I take it the card game finally came to an end?" Scavenger took a puff at his pipe and blew a smoke.

"Megatron was cheating so I stopped," Optimus groaned from the couch. "What I wouldn't give for a pretty femme right now..."

And there it was, Megatron wasn't the only one who had changed somewhat over the past five years since the war ended. Optimus was a bit more blunt and upbeat, no longer being the leader he was also more laid-back. And aside from not wearing his mask anymore, his armor was still blue, silver, and a dark grey from when he left the bowels of Unicron. Yet he was able to get his original golden optics back through some upgrading.

Scavenger rolled his eyes. "Typical Prime..." he puffed out a smoke and his comn beeped; it was Sideswipe.

"What? I haven't had a good come in 6 months! Can you blame me?" Optimus grumbled while Scavenger answered his comnlink.

"Uh sir... I might need your help here, we're headed into an asteroid field," Sideswipe said over his comm. Sideswipe hadn't changed much since the war ended, he was currently taking training from Scavenger since he wasn't able to finish during the war. He was still curious, still the klutz, and still the ever-shy SideSwipe. But all in all, he was the same lovable Autobot rookie from back then.

Scavenger growled. "Well I'm not the one who flies the ship Swipes..." he directed his channel to Prime's comnlink.

"Oh sorry Scavenger... wrong comnlink." Sideswipe quickly changed the channels to Prime's link. Sideswipe; being who he was, had been trying to stay on the older mech's good side. Training with Scavenger and making simple mistakes was one thing; pissing him off was another.

Optimus opened his comlink. "Put it on level 4 Sideswipe, you know this ship can pretty much fly itself. The computer will do the rest," Optimus commanded.

"Roger that Optimus, " Sideswipe responded before closing the link.

Megatron went to the kitchen that overlooked the living and pulled out a bottle of high-grade; still had the addiction for it unfortunately. He pulled off his mask and opened the bottle, walking over to the couch and plopped down next to Prime, "We still have those Porno-vids you bought Prime?"

"I didn't buy those and you know it!" Optimus growled, waving a finger at the con's face. Megatron still teased him about those holo-vids, they got on the ship somehow and the former Decepticon leader instantly thought Prime was finally showing his true colors. "And I told you, one high-grade bottle every three days. It's been two," Prime added, crossing his arms.

Megatron was making movements with his lips, mocking Prime's voice with an irritating whiney gibberish. He went to take another sip at the bottle when the ship lurched forward and shook violently, sending his bottle of high-grade to the ground. Megatron mentally cried "NOOO!" and frowned; he looked at Prime who looked at him and they both looked up towards the ceiling screaming, "SIIDES!!"

"SORRY! "

Another violent shake, Scavenger growled turning on his comn, "Sideswipe get this ship in gear or so help me I will smack the living hell out of your ass!"

"Would you stop with that spanking nonsense?" Megatron picked up the spilt bottle of high-grade, "I already have sympathy for the poor boy."

"That wasn't me I swear!" Sideswipe hollered over the comnlink; he had maneuvered around the asteroid field, "Stupid…useless…giant rocks!" The younger mech grumbled, then grinned, as he was able to get the ship clear of the asteroids. "Got it guys!" SideSwipe was beginning to steer the ship into open space when he felt the gravity shake. He looked around, suddenly hearing the alarms and buttons go off and making the control panel flicker with lights. He frowned deeply when he looked at the scanners; he gazed at the screen worriedly.

The ship shook violently, SideSwipe's attention drawn to the holo-vid when it popped up, showing the readings of a strong energy force. A very familiar, strong energy force, "AHHHH! ITS A BLACK HOLE!!!! WE'RE BEING SUCKED IN!!!" His voice screamed over the intercom of the ship.

Prime had practically shot up to the Control deck and took over the pilot's chair that Sideswipe had been sitting in. Megatron and Scavenger had joined them; Scavenger holding onto Sideswipe as the ship shook again, "Swipes! Take the defense controls!" And the small bot did as he was told. Megatron sat himself next to Prime in the seat that controlled most of the rocket and main grappler systems of the ship.

The black hole they were entering was HUGE, the size of Unicron himself. It crackled lightning and was sucking in asteroids the size of large vessels and cities; Megatron was hanging onto the controls as Prime was trying to fly their way out of range of the black hole.

No such luck…

Sideswipe was holding onto the controls tightly, practically on the verge of panicking when the ship was shaking uncontrollably.

Scavenger was sitting at his place across from Sideswipe; he reached over and held onto the young bot's shoulder, "Stay strong kid, we'll get through this..." He looked over at Prime whom couldn't seem to get the ship to turn around.

Megatron was having trouble as well, "The systems aren't responding!" he fell over the controls when the ship rocked and lurched forward. The vessel was shaking so horribly that Prime couldn't hold onto the controls; another violent shake and Prime's head was sent into the control panel. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the sight of the black hole's gaping mouth swallowing them whole. There were screams, cries, and then suddenly, everything went dark...

* * *

Sideswipe groaned, his optics glowing as they came online to the sight of the control panels flickering and darkness looming over the Control deck. He quickly scrambled up, looking around frantically; everyone else was still out. This didn't make any sense, shouldn't they be dead?

Sideswipe walked over to the window, they were still drifting through space. The control panel that flickered showed no alerts of damage, no coordinates, no reference to any nearby planets. Where were they? Sideswipe was about to take a few taps at the controls when suddenly feeling a hand grasping his shoulder. His optics widened and he let out a long, high-pitched scream.

Scavenger could feel his audio receptors blow, "Damnit kid! Shut up!" he shook the bot a bit then settled him on a chair. The old mech looked around and found Prime and Megatron out cold; he groaned, scratching his head while walking over he nudged at Prime, "Optimus... wake up!"

There was a low groan emanating from the blue and silver Autobot, "Oh... my head... " He rubbed his audios, sitting up in his seat, "…who screamed like a girl?"

Scavenger grumbled, "Who do you think?"

Prime snickered, seeing SideSwipe glare up to his mentor as he got up from his seat to nudge Megatron awake. The older Decepticon groaned, lifting his head that had been lying back against the seat. He rubbed the back of his head, powering up his optics slowly and looking around, "Where…where are we?"

"Not so sure…" SideSwipe answered suddenly, "I think we passed a planet not too long ago." He looked back at the window, "And I don't think that was any ordinary black hole…" SideSwipe narrowed his optics, "If I remember correctly, whatever goes into a black hole ends up as scrap. And since we're not scrap…" he looked back at Scavenger.

The older mech narrowed his optics, "Then it wasn't a black hole…" he said, "It was a worm hole…"

Megatron's vision was slightly blurred when he sat up; he spotted a planet in which they were entering ever so closely. He blinked, and blinked again, "Wha…?" he squinted his optics and found the planet to be blue, green...with white puffy stuff around it. He was sure he'd seen a planet like that before...realization suddenly dawned on him square in the face and his optics snapped to the size of saucers, "Its....EARTH??"

Sideswipe had practically jumped in the sudden outburst of Megatron's voice, stumbling over his own footing before landing on the cold metal floor.

"Earth?" Optimus blinked, optics wide in disbelief, "Well I'll be doggone…" He sat down slowly back onto the chair; he sighed, "Thank you Primus for Earth…"

Scavenger sat into the computer's control chair, scanning the vitals of the ship. He frowned deeply at the results of the scans, "We're going to have to make a quick stop, this ship lost a lot of fuel when we went through that black hole," he tapped at the keyboard, pulling up a few docking stations, "We can refuel and gather our supplies if we keep the ship at a steady speed." The old mech looked down to Prime, "Care to do the honors?"

"Why me?" Prime had practically whined, "I don't feel like it…"

Scavenger smacked his own forehead, "PILOT THE SHIP YOU IDIOT!!"

Optimus grumbled, sitting in the pilot's chair and starting up the controls. A few moments later, they were currently flying into Earth's atmosphere. Sideswipe sat at the communications controls and was trying to gain contact with the tower as Scavenger was looking for a good place to dock.

"Hmm..." Scavenger narrowed his optics, "This is strange I don't see any docks down there..."

"Yeah I don't either… " Optimus narrowed his optics, looking around on the surface of the Earth through the window. "There's suppose to be a city right here…" he blinked, surveying the area suspiciously, "…guys, I don't think this is the earth we know...there are no traces of Cybertronian life anywhere, not even a trace of scrap metal on this planet..."

Optimus maneuvered the ship, searching for any signs of Cybertronian built cities on the Earth's surface. So far, no such luck...They had reached Japan where one of the capital Cybertronian cities were supposed to be held, what they found was plain old Japan.

Sideswipe grumbled, "I'm not tracing any Control towers guys…" he flipped a few switches to move the scanner up and down the area, "I don't think this is Earth…Well at least the Earth we know…we definitely went through a wormhole 'cause this could be a completely different universe..."

Scavenger had lit a new pipe earlier and was now smoking it slowly; he frowned deeply after having looked over the data of the scans. "We should camouflage the ship," he said, blowing a smoke, "just until we can get some answers on what's going on here..." He looked over at Sideswipe, who nodded, and he turned around to the control panel, tapping a few keys and flipping a few switches. There was a slight movement in gears and soon the ship was being covered in colors, morphing and fusing into its background. Prime set the ship on a silent drift, allowing them to glide over the ocean before landing into the ocean that was located next Tokyo without being noticed nor heard.


	2. Surprise!

Chapter 2 ~ "Surprise!"

Sideswipe let out a sigh of relief, getting up to check the status of the engines when he suddenly tripped over a loose wire on the floor. The said wire just so happened to be connected to the ship's weaponry systems and by tripping over it, Sideswipe had accidently sent a laser blast shooting into the water towards the surface. It created a small explosion of water in the distance no too far from Tokyo's harbor.

"SIDES!!!"

"Oops…AH! " Sideswipe felt himself being yanked up by the crook of his neck and he looked up. Scavenger was holding him, glaring down at him with glowing yellow optics.

After landing the ship below the surface of the harbor, Scavenger, Megatron, and Prime had slipped their way onto the surface while leaving a very disappointed Sideswipe back on the ship.

Silently moving between the warehouses of the marina, the three mechs had finally discovered the heart of the city.

Tokyo was… Tokyo.

With people running through the streets to get to their destinations, traffic backing up, daily shipments to the market and what not. Optimus Prime had stopped on a tall building to catch his breath, Scavenger landed next to him as well as Megatron. Prime looked over the vast, still growing city; from his experience over the past five years, Prime learned that the Cybertronians had made a treaty with Earth and allying with them. They had built cities around the world, forming a mix of different races on the planet. But here, he found nothing but the human race, not one Cybertronian or even a single mechanoid anywhere.

"What do you think?" Megatron asked as Prime stretched his arms behind his head.

Prime grunted, bringing his arms down, "This is beyond strange..." he blinked, looking over the city, "I haven't seen a single ounce of Cybertronian life anywhere..." Prime directed his attention towards Scavenger, "Should we try contacting anyone?"

Scavenger shook his head, "Too risky," his mouth was set in a firm line, "There's no telling what or who could pick up our signals..." His optics looked over and surveyed the city; he saw the many, many buildings that Tokyo was famous for. The ever-growing population needed the bountiful skyscrapers, high ways, and the suburban or urban dwellings. So many structures that were completed to a certain height, except for a select few, but one certain structure seemed to stand out in the distance. It looked to be the tallest building, with an assortment of many other buildings and compounds surrounding it.

Scavenger narrowed his optics, "Let me ask you something Prime..." he cracked his knuckles, "Have you ever seen that building before in Tokyo?" he pointed into the distance at the large building in the city.

Prime blinked, looking in the direction that Scavenger had pointed in. He squinted his optics, scanning over the building, "I've never seen that building before…" Optimus opened his mini holo-screen on his forearm, searching for any information on the strange building. He grunted when his search turned to be a failure, "I've got nothing on this thing…" he looked back up to the building once more, "It might be a newly built Cybertronian structure…"

Megatron sneered, "Don't get your hopes up Prime..." he crossed his arms, "We still have to check to make sure..." The former Decepticon warlord had adjusted the wings on his back; "Well we aren't going to find out any answers just standing around..." By activating his thrusters, Megatron began to hop over the buildings once more, Prime and Scavenger following closely behind.

Optimus approached silently; the tall silver tower looked almost exactly like the tower in Ocean City. But there were more human personnel then he remembered. Maybe they moved the city seeing as it was still a island…sort of. He crept closer, suddenly spotting a pair of robots; one red and the other blue walking into the building. They looked to be the same design… and they looked Cybertronian!

Optimus raised his optic-ridges in high hopes, hopping a few yards along the buildings until finally finding a place to land upon the rooftop. Megatron and Scavenger had followed, landing behind Prime on the white surface of the building.

Optimus was clenching and unclenching his hands; "Now to see if we can get their attention..." looking around the large area of the rooftop, he spotted a large exhaust vent. He smiled, "Ahah!" and thus began walking over and pulling off the circular-fenced vent cap. He looked back at the two remaining bots with one leg dangling over the inside of the vent, "Coming or what?" Before they could answer; however, he flipped inside with gentle skill and grace, making no such sound at all. Megatron sighed and jumped in, Scavenger followed as well.

Landing in a heap of boxes, Optimus grumbled and coughed when the impact from his landing kicked up a cloud of dust in the room around him. He looked up to find himself in what appeared to be a large storage room. It was full all sorts of old electronics, television monitors, spare wires, human-sized tools, metal beams and bricks, hardware, software, hard drives, old servers and… just the right equipment they might need.

Optimus grinned, "Start sub-spacing some stuff," he said once hearing the other two bots hitting the floor, "I'm getting a funny feeling we might need it." Shuffling around the piles of cargo boxes, he made his way towards the door. Judging by its size, there were definitely mechanoids around the facility, either that or the humans of this planet were giants.

There were the sudden sounds of shouting and Optimus stopped midway from attempting to open the door. They weren't pleasant shouts, they sounded as if they were in pain… Placing his audio against the door, Optimus listened in on the voices. More shouting, then the faint sound of whimpers followed. They were not of a human voice that was for sure; the vocal patterns were too mechanized. He heard the sound of feet shuffling, metal clanging against the hard floors of the hallways. More whimpers, more shouting, and then soft cries and sobbing… Optimus was close to opening the door when a loud scream ruptured through the walls from the other side. He jumped, backing away a few steps and optics widening at the metal door.

Megatron stiffened, "What was that?" he shifted his red optics to Prime.

The blue and silver coated bot shook his head, optics winced, "I don't know…"

Reaching out hesitantly, Optimus opened the door to a mere slit. He looked through the small space, looking anxiously around for the source of the agonizing voices. He spotted a group of humans, all holding weapons such as rifles and machine guns, and some holding what looked to be long metal pitchforks. He narrowed his optics, hearing the sound of metal tumble to the floor and found something truly shocking to his eyes. There was a red-coated mech; a particularly young-looking red mech that was down on all fours on the ground. His wrists and feet were shackled, his form was shaking and emanating quiet whimpers. Prime had to suppress a gasp, watching as a human had rushed over with one of the long metal pitchforks and zapping the red-coated mech with an electric shock. The pitchfork was a powerful shocking-instrument, and the shocks to the young mech became more and more frequent when the human was demanding constantly that the mech stand up immediately.

And slowly, so very slowly the red mech stood shakily to his feet. He rejoined a group of other mechs, all in different colors. They all headed down a long corridor, towards a large door that seem to loom over with a dark and miserable presence. It opened as they went inside, and closed behind them. An eerie silence was all that was remained in the hallway, something that only meant disaster.

Prime closed the door, turning back to lean against it and breathed, "By Primus... they were prisoners..."

Scavenger raised an optic ridge, "What? "

Optimus had brought his fist up, clasping his fingers together tightly and placing them against his lips. He shuttered a breath, looking up to Scavenger in his reply, "The mechs here at this facility… they were shackled and being tortured by... by the humans," golden optics narrowed upon his blue-painted face, "They looked like they were just younglings..."

Scavenger's optics widened, "Younglings?" he gasped.

Megatron gritted teeth, "And they're at the hands of those pathetic humans…" A low growl slipped through his teeth.

Prime nodded, "They all went into another room just down the hall," he winced his optics, swallowing hard. Turning his head back to the door, "The humans were all herding them like cattle, pigs to the slaughterhouse…"

Scavenger narrowed his optics; "Experimentation might be the reason, or possibly brainwashing for slavery…" A large purple hand was brought to the elder mech's chin, a finger tapping lightly, "Either way, we can't let this happen to them. If they're really just younglings then they stand no chance in a situation like this…"

Optimus looked up to the purple and green bot, optics narrowed and he nodded, "Agreed…"

Megatron frowned, crossing his massive arms over his chest, "So what do you suggest we do Prime?"

The bot in question did not answer; Optimus stood up from leaning against the door and looked around the room. Looking towards the air vent, he smirked and walked over, attempting to climb back up the shaft.

Scavenger raised an optic ridge, "What are you doing?" he blinked at the bot dangling from the air vent, "The younglings are the OTHER way."

"I know that," Optimus' voice echoed from the vent, "But I'm pretty sure that I saw another air shaft on our way down here. It could lead us to whatever is behind those doors."

Scavenger blinked, sighed then shrugged, "You're the captain," he walked over to the vent, reaching up and pulling himself into the shaft. He looked back at Megatron when he noticed the Decepticon wasn't following, "You coming?" he asked.

Megatron smirked, "I'd rather not be crowded in a tight space with you two thanks," he flexed his green cannons upon his shoulders. "I think it might be best for me to play the 'Party Crasher', if you catch my drift…" a sly grin grew across the Decepticon's face.

Scavenger shrugged, chuckling, "Suit yourself…" he looked back up the vent, following Prime through the maze of the metal shafts.

* * *

Metal clashed against metal, the sounds echoing through the air vents of the facility. Prime grunted, crawling through the tight space without making too much of a commotion. The vents weren't exactly cramped, in fact it was just a coincidence the vent was big enough to hold a mech of his size. Moving through the shaft was the tricky part; his shoulder-armor was literally scraping against the vent's walls, creating a line indented in the metal.

Optimus sighed in relief, finally spotting a patch of light at the end of the airshaft. Crawling over as quickly as he could, Optimus came upon the vent-cap that granted him a view into a large room, Scavenger joined him soon after. Tilting the individual vent-strips, the Autobots surveyed the area below; it was a large conference or operation control room. There were numerous humans sitting at a number of computers and just simply typing away. They were overlooking the group of bots in various colors that were shackled earlier; the bots themselves were situated in more of an uncomfortable position.

Each of the bots sat upon a large metal chair, wrist and feet strapped in with metal straps, wires attached at every point of their bodies, and metal collars wrapped around their necks. It was as if they were sitting upon the electric chair for a public execution. And before them was their audience to witness their deaths, a council of humans. A man with blonde hair stood at the top of the conference room.

He was a tall, and what seemed to be a somewhat bulky man, his blonde hair was long and put into a low ponytail. "You all know why we are here…" when he spoke his voice rumbled through the room, "The Zonderians have been defeated and because of that we thank you all."

It would seem a glitter of hope, "However…" the man's voice was low as he closed his eyes and reopened them towards the team of bots, "…the previous actions by cabin fevered Yuusha is unforgivable, too many, many lives have been lost by the stunts you all have pulled…"

Prime had blinked, what did he mean? Haven't they fought by their sides and helped them? He leaned in closer to the vent's edge to hear more clearly, "So…" the tall man spoke again, "by the order of the council: EnRyu, HyoRyu, RaiRyu, FuuRyu, Mic Sounders the 13th, Goldymarg, VolFogg, and the GunMachines must be deactivated." There were a series of gasps and pleas towards the groups of humans, the tall blonde man paid no attention to them, "Begin the deactivation program…" he said slowly, eyes seeming to wince with remorse, "I'm sorry my friends…but you are no longer needed…"

Mechanical cries were heard from above; the two witnesses watched in silence, the sounds of the young pleading voices were unbearable. In the darkness of the airshaft, both Optimus and Scavenger were finding it difficult to contain their rage.

Scavenger's fist were clenched tightly, "This is insane..." his old yellow optics narrowed with a sneer, "Why would they want to deactivate them? And what the hell are Zonders?"

Prime shook his head, "I don't know," his mouth was set into a deep frown, looking up to the elder green and purple coated mech, "but I'm not waiting to find out..." Raising a finger to his comnlink, Optimus directed the frequency to Megatron. Speaking in a hush tone, the former Autobot Commander explained a strategic plan to rescue these younglings in distress.

Fingers tapped at the controls and lights blinked from above, the humans were getting ready to deactivate the robots before them. "Ready?" the Commander with the blonde hair spoke.

One of the officers nodded to the tall blonde and opened a cap to a button that would deactivate the bots. All eyes and ears were now focused on the group of mechanical beings, the humans' expressions hard and firm to prevent any emotions from slipping through. However; some couldn't bear to watch, their eyes welling up with tears and lips trembling as they attempted to hide their faces.

The officer looked up to the group of robots, breathed and began the count down, "Deactivation commencing…" There were cries erupting from the group of colorful robots strapped down to their chairs, however their pleas went unheard by the humans.

The officer continued, "Final shutdown in 3…" he shouted over the screams of horror…

"… 2..." Sobs and struggles caused metal to clash against heavy metal…

"...1..." his finger grazed over the button, about to deliver the pressure to push it until…

There was an explosion and the door was sent flying across the room, hitting the opposite wall and landing in a burning, metal heap. Smoke drifted heavily from the door opening, filling the room and causing a number of humans to cough and gag at the intoxicating smell. There was a silence, everyone standing up from his or her chairs and directing their full attention to the smoking opening of the conference room. No one moved, no one spoke, no one even blinked as each and every human in the room watched the doorway, their eyes widened in shock and fear.

Through the thickness of the smoke, two glowing red orbs appeared from the other side of the doorway. There were the sounds of heavy, metal footsteps creeping closer and closer to the conference room, signaling that whatever had attacked was large and destructive. A series of gasp erupted from the throats of the humans, their eyes finally falling upon the massive attacker as he walked in coated silver and green armor. Large green cannons mounted on his shoulders, wings sprouted from his back, and pair of piercing red optics upon a white-masked face, glaring down at the humans.

"HELLO MAGGOTS!"


	3. Must get out alive

Chapter 3 ~ "Must get out alive…"

Megatron grinned, "HELLO MAGGOTS!" he roared, aiming his cannons and firing at the humans, sending bodies flying and smashing parts of machinery from the control panels to bits.

Humans ducked and dove under whatever was useful for cover as the large silver and green mech continued to fire upon the conference room. The tall blonde man, along with another with dark hair and glasses, watched in utter horror as their comrades were blown away by the massive mechanical being. Officers holding simple machine guns were unable to stop it with the small bullets that they had. It was obvious that this giant robot was completely indestructible.

Optimus smirked from his hiding place in the air vent, "Show off…" he muttered in amusement.

Scavenger chuckled, "Got to give him credit," he made an attempt to stretch out his massive arms in the tight space, "He makes a good entrance."

"Yeah," the former Autobot Commander nodded, turning to Scavenger and flashing a mischievous grin, "But I can make a better one…" Raising his arm back with his hand clenched into a fist, Prime threw a powerful blow into the metal vent.

The ceiling tore open with dust and smoke, debris flying everywhere as two massive mechanical beings landed on the floor. The impact from the landing caused the ground to shake, the humans around them in all the explosive chaos had fallen over when feeling the ground beneath them quake. More cries erupted as the humans spotted the two new large robots.

Optimus pointed his arm-guns at the humans, firing plasma blast but making little effort to inflict too much harm to any of the organic life forms. His passion and respect for all living organisms still burned in his spark, however not as brightly. Firing a few more blasts, Optimus moved around the room with Scavenger at his side, both making their way towards the group of mechs.

Coming upon the mechs in distress, Optimus instructed Scavenger to undo the restraints. The elder bot was more than happy to oblige; with his powerful grip, Scavenger tore away every wire, metal strap, and collar from the group of colorful robots.

The one coated in red; known as EnRyu, looked up at the large green and purple mech with shock. The one sitting next to him in blue armor, HyoRyu, followed EnRyu's gaze. They both marveled over the massive robot before them.

Scavenger stared down at them sternly, "We need to get out of here…" he pulled them both off the chairs with each of his arms, "Quickly!"

EnRyu and HyoRyu had practically tripped over their own feet when being pulled off the chairs. HyoRyu was on the verge of a breakdown from the complete shock of the whole situation and EnRyu was in utter panic. They were joined with their brethren a few moments later, each of them frightened and hurt by the day's events. Scavenger had to herd them into the right direction in order to get them out of harm's way.

Running for their lives, the group of bots led by Scavenger all hurried towards the nearest exit. It came to the point where a few of the colorful mechs would have to be carried; HyoRyu carrying EnRyu, and the green-coated mech named FuuRyu carrying the yellow one name RaiRyu. Scavenger was carrying the smaller mechs; VolFogg and the GunMachines were draped over his shoulders as Mic and Goldymarg followed the Ryu brothers down the corridor.

Megatron and Optimus had been playing defense, firing back at the humans with as much force as possible. The humans, seeing as there was a potential threat, decided to pull out the big guns. The minute the group of bots had left the large conference room, a small army of human officers with cannons, rifles, and other assortments of gunfire had followed. Prime and Megatron were fortunate enough to evade the blasts while following Scavenger and the others out, but the armies of humans were slowly growing in numbers.

As they were running down the corridors of the building, Scavenger soon became aware that the gunfire was getting heavy. A few stray laser fire headed for elder mech and he quickly turned to the side, letting his shoulder treads take a beating. He clung to VolFogg tightly when feeling the purple-coated bot slipping from his grasp, and ran as fast as his heavy frame would let him.

Red lights began to flicker and a loud alarm sounded throughout the halls. Scavenger cursed and ran faster, the bots behind him were barely keeping up.

The jolting and the sound of firing finally managed to get through to VolFogg, and the ninja mech twitched a few times before raising his head as much as he could. His optics flickered badly; though he managed to catch a few glimpses of mechs he didn't recognize. Turning his head with the jolting run, he caught sight of GunGlue next to him and GunDober draped over the stranger's other shoulder. Then his body went limp as he slid back into unconsciousness.

Prime was having trouble keeping the young bots in front of him from stopping. The large amount of gunfire had taken its toll; shots fired were hitting the bots directly in certain areas. Their bodies were staggering, slowing down due to the immense pains from their wounds and the dying energies in their systems. Megatron was doing all he could to keep the injuries to a minimum; firing shot after shot at the humans and leaving burned corpses lying on the floors.

Blast after blast, the gunfire just kept coming. When they thought things couldn't get any worse; a stray laser had shot HyoRyu in the leg and the bot went tumbling down. Optimus cursed as HyoRyu went down, his red companion falling with him. He did not stop in his tracks and just scooped up the younger bots quickly, throwing them over his shoulders and catching up with Scavenger.

Megatron had fired a few rounds at the ceiling, causing it to crumble and collapse, cutting them off from the humans. The silver and green Decepticon snickered under his mask, aiming the middle finger in the direction of the humans and sped off to follow the rest of the group. When looking up ahead of Scavenger, Megatron spotted a reasonable exit. They were running down a hallway, at the end there was a sign that said "Docking Bay". The Decepticon smirked in triumph, "Scavenger go for the docking bay!" he shouted to the elder mech. Soon, they were all running through a mech-sized door that was used whenever the robots would help with the cargo.

They came upon the docking bay, a series of semi-trucks were parked here and there near the cement docks. When spotting the main entrance, Megatron went ahead, pushing past the mechs. He crouched down before a large metal garage door, slipping his blue fingers under the slab of steel and using all his strength to push the door upwards. It wasn't a difficult task; this was of course the former Emperor of the Decepticon Empire.

The door flew upwards and Megatron turned around to the group with narrowed, red optics, "Get to the ship," he said venomously. And there wasn't any hint of hesitation as the group before him sped past and headed for the outside. After making sure everything was clear, Megatron entered the outdoors as well. After turning around, he lifted an arm and closed the heavy steel door. To make sure that any humans did not enter the outside, Megatron aimed his two cannons on his shoulders at the closed door and fired, melting the metal together to the cement ground. Satisfied, Megatron turned to follow the group that was making haste towards the sea.

Scavenger had opened up his comnlink to Sideswipe, "Swipes! Surface the ship!" he shouted.

When hearing the booming voice over his comn, Sideswipe had practically fallen off his recharge birth. He struggled to get to his feet, stumbling in his tracks as he attempted to dash up to the Control Deck of the ship. He tripped over himself in the stairway, almost falling down when he was able to save himself by some dumb luck. Entering the Control Deck, Sideswipe sat in his chair and began to punch in a series of codes. There was a loud humming echoing around the ship; the engines were just heating up. A seat change; Sideswipe was now sitting in the pilot's seat, changing the gears and guiding the ship through the water towards Scavenger's location. Reaching the Sea Port, the young Autobot began to raise the ship from the water. Its massive frame no longer camouflaged after Sideswipe deactivated the ship. Now the other bots could watch as the ship surfaced, hovering over the water and making its way towards the dock. It came to halt mere inches away from the concrete, allowing the door to open and the bridge to land on the dock. The three large mechs had practically tossed the younger group of mechs in, following soon after.


	4. Meeting a broken brethren

Chapter 4 ~ "Meeting a broken brethren"

Once they were inside Sideswipe had slammed the door shut, initiating the locking mechanism. He noted the hurried footsteps of his large comrades were echoing down the hallway and he followed after them. Sideswipe had found them settling the newfound mechs in the medical bay. They all looked to be in critical condition…

A black-and-white mech with hawk's wings adorning his helm stirred slightly, letting out a long, dull chirp, optic visor barely lit. One arm twitched, reaching toward the purple mech, while the flickering optic visor turned toward the other black-and-white. Then the faint glow went out, and the mech collapsed again.

Scavenger had blinked towards the small black and white mech, "He sounded...almost like a minicon but..." He looked back from the smaller black and white mech to a few scans he had taken of few of the mechs, "I'm not getting anything," he growled, "Primus I'm not even getting a spark reading!" He slammed his fist on the keyboard and looked up at the other crewmembers, "What the hell is going on? Aren't they mechs? Just like us? They SHOULD have a spark!"

Sideswipe blinked, "No spark?" he looked over the scans as soon as Scavenger gave him the clipboard of information on the new bots. Sideswipe flipped through screen after screen, "This is impossible…this can't be possible! How do they live without a spark??"

Scavenger shrugged, "I was asking you kid…" He saw the young bot bite his lip as he flipped through the clipboard again.

Sideswipe sighed. "All I can think of is that they aren't Cybertronian based but Earthen based mechs…" he tapped at his fingers on his arms, bring a hand to his chin. "It's quite possible, I read somewhere in an American governmental document that there were projects to create mechanical beings like us…" Sideswipe smirked, "I'm impressed and not surprised that the Japanese got to the project first…"

Scavenger growled, "That would mean that they're oil-dependent…" he sneered, "Shit, like we didn't have enough problems already…"

The second black-and-white, the one with the helm shaped like a tiger's head, spasmed suddenly and a fountain of sparks erupted from one side of his helm. A green fluid leaked out of several joints, though it slowed and stopped on its own. The purple mech twitched a few times, but otherwise didn't move.

"Shit..." Scavenger hurried over to the mech, checking the his head, "Damnit! He's paralyzed!" He grabbed a few tools and opened a panel on the mech's head, green fluid dripped here and there but otherwise the old mech was able to get the wiring straight. After a few moments of working through wires and sucking through a gooey green liquid, Scavenger was able to get the mech stable.

The tiger-helmed mach's convulsions finally stopped, and the fluid stopped leaking. Though the readings remained very low. The mech had taken a considerable amount of internal damage. The hawk-helmed mech's readings were somewhat more stable, while the purple mech's were fluctuating all over the place. None of them reacted to being strapped down for the flight.

Scavenger shook his head and looked at Prime, "Have you tried talking to them at all? At least getting their names?" Prime shook his head and Scavenger sighed, "It be a good idea, cause if they don't make it..."

There was a loud cough and a shudder-filled gasp; all eyes turned towards the mech in yellow, seeing his frame shake and spark electricity.

FuuRyu held his little brother close on the berth they were strapped down to. "Rai?! RaiRyu! " FuuRyu checked his energy output and cursed under his breath. He turned the dial on RaiRyu's chest, allowing the electric energy to spread throughout the yellow bot's body. It wasn't enough, RaiRyu's systems were overloading and his dial was literally spewing electricity everywhere. "Shit RaiRyu...let me try and fix your output, " he grimaced, prying at the panel on RaiRyu's arm, causing to him cry out in pain.

Megatron shook his head, optics wide, "They're all... failing, Prime," he looked to the former Autobot Commander, "We need to do something before they all DIE!" He gritted his teeth.

Scavenger blinked, overhearing the green mech, "Did I hear that name right?" he looked over at Sideswipe, who just shrugged, then suddenly jumped to the yellow bot's cry.

Prime winced at the pain-filled yell and walked over.

FuuRyu had caught sight of the blue and silver mech walking over him and his twin. He flinched when the bot was looming over the table, his golden optics were glowing slightly in the dim light. There was a smile upon his blue-coated face, it wasn't menacing or dark but warm and gentle, as if he were there to help and not to cause any harm.

FuuRyu narrowed his optics at this new mech, clutching to his twin tightly when seeing the strange new mech move closer to them. The blue and silver mech had spotted this, his smile growing as he moved his hand to behind the berth and pulled out a few cables. He attached them to RaiRyu's chest, beginning to speak, "My name is Optimus," he spoke softly, "And there's nothing to worry about, my crew and I are going to be taking good care of you."

FuuRyu watched the mech at work; his grip on his twin was strong and protective, ready to pull RaiRyu away at any moment if something were to go wrong. The cable attached to RaiRyu's chest sparked with electricity, causing the yellow mech's body to jolt and suddenly settle down. RaiRyu began to rest easy on the table and FuuRyu smiled with relief, looking up to the blue and silver bot, "T-thank you…" he said in a hushed tone.

Optimus smiled once again, nodding to the younger green twin, "No problem," he lightly patted the yellow bot's arm and made his way over to the others.

"...'Dober..." The faint word came from the purple mech as he managed to claw his way to consciousness; his optics were still flickering however. His head slowly turned toward the tiger-helmed black-and-white. "...'Glue..."

The purple mech was starting to move, more than he had been, head turning. His optics were flickering on and off, clearly hampering his vision. He was tugging at the restraints on his arms, wanting to use his hands to find his comrades. "'Dober! 'Glue!" A few sparks flew from his right knee joint.

Scavenger heard the purple mech's cry, walking over to check on him. The elder mech looked down on him, "Easy kid," he said softly, patting the bot's shoulder gently, "everything's going to be all right once we get into space..." Scavenger took out a few tools and went to work on the purple mech's knee; he looked up to Sideswipe after a few moments, "Swipes! Get this damn ship moving we don't have all day!"

Sideswipe jumped, saluting in a series matter and practically scampered to the Control Deck.

Then Scavenger turned to the silver con, his expression covered by the mask, "And you! Check on blue and red and see how they're doing! Haven't seen them move an inch since we got on here."

Megatron wrinkled his nose underneath his mask and went to check on the blue and red mechs.

Sideswipe had arrived to the Control Deck, taking a seat to the Pilot's chair and activated the controls. The engines roared to life, massive waves of heat emanating from the thrusters, creating steam to rise from the ocean as they rose up from the Earth's surface. "Hang on to your butts! " Sideswipe's voice was heard over the intercom of the ship as it was hurtled out of the Earth's atmosphere and rocketed into the darkness of space.

VolFogg had not had a good day. Being touched by someone he didn't know on top of being betrayed by those he had thought were his friends was too much for his already frayed nerves. As fast as his malfunctioning body would allow him, he whipped his head around and aimed a bite at the hand on his shoulder. Fighting the restraints as much as he could, "My team...!" he cried out in agony.

Scavenger had to hold him down roughly, "Easy kid, I'm not gonna hurt you..." he looked straight into the purple mech's face, into his optics. Scavenger blinked, "What's your name?" the old bot felt the mech struggle somewhat, panting through the pain and panic.

The purple mech snapped at him again, glaring up at the strange mech with as much force as he could muster. He wasn't strong enough at the moment to break the restraints, but that didn't stop him from trying. He growled something under his breath, trying to twist away from the stranger.

Scavenger frowned, "Listen!" he raised his voice sternly, "I can't get anything done unless you cooperate!" He looked into the direction of the black and white mechs, "You're friends are going to be fine, don't worry…" He then turned back at the purple one before him, "Please, we're not going to hurt you. We're trying to help..." Scavengers golden optics were soft and he smiled warmly, "Could you please tell me your name?"

The tiger-helmed mech made a sound like a huge robotic feline, and the purple mech stilled, tilting his head toward the black-and-white. The one with the hawk helm made a whistling sound, like a huge bird, and the purple helm turned toward the sound. Finally, he stopped fighting, trying to focus on the stranger's face, "VolFogg..." he answered tiredly.

Scavenger smirked and nodded, "All right VolFogg," he let go of the mech's shoulders and went back to repairing his knee, "Sorry about the restraints though kid, apparently the IDIOT WHO'S DRIVING THIS SHIP can't drive worth a shit when it comes to getting out of tight situations..." He heard a loud insult over his comnlink from the blue bot up in the cockpit. Scavenger rolled his optics. "He's a big pansy...REALLY," Scavenger twiddled with a stray wire on VolFogg's knee and straightened it up slightly.

"I can't see..." Pink-red optics flickered and finally darkened. He turned his head toward the tiger-helmed mech. "'Dober?"

Scavenger looked up to the purple mech, then frowned, "You've suffered a lot of damage VolFogg, you and your friends..." he went up and adjusted VolFogg's position on the berth, "I'm gonna try and get your optics working, now hold still..." he took a small, thin, screw-driver looking tool and stuck it in slowly through VolFogg's helm, "This might hurt a bit..." Scavenger tapped his finger at the nub of the handle and it sparked, sending electricity around Vol's head, his optics flickered.

"It can't hurt as much as the betrayal we have already suffered…" VolFogg held still, not wanting to risk further damage by moving with that thing stuck through his helm. His optics flickered, and then finally settled into a steady glow. Blinking, he looked up at Scavenger for a long moment, and then turned his head to look at the two black-and-whites. "GunDober... GunGlue..."

The ship jolted and Scavenger growled, yelling over his comnlink, "DAMNIT SIDES!!" A quick apology over the other end and a message saying they were passing by the Earth's moon. "Well TRY and keep it away from the damn gravitational field..." Scavenger sighed roughly and looked down at VolFogg, then to the two black and white mechs who were reaching for each other.

VolFogg tugged at the restraints on his arms again, looking up at Scavenger in a way that said, "Unhook those restraints, please." He looked toward the tiger-helmed mech as another spark sizzled from the tiger helm's ear.

Scavenger smirked, "Okay kid, but if you fall over, I'm tying you down again..." with a flick of his finger the restraints subsided and folded down into the berth

Sideswipe cursed as he tried to guide the ship free, causing lots of bumping and swaying. He winced at the threat Scavenger sent for his already abused aft. "I'm trying you old cock! "He managed to steer the ship free and they were home free that is till what seemed to be an orbit base caught site of them. " Oh slag... "

The purple mech would have rolled his optics if he'd been able. Reaching out, he took the two black hands reaching toward him. Black fingers intertwined with dark grey, and the two black-and-whites settled down again. VolFogg was silent for a moment, and then stiffened, "Watch out... Orbit Base..."

Scavenger blinked, "Orbit... base?" He looked over at Megatron, who had been swiping some slick medicated oil over the red mech's unconscious form; the con shrugged. The blue mech was watching Megatron very carefully, glaring daggers at the former Decepticon warlord.

"Space... station..." VolFogg's optics were dimming; he was slipping back into unconsciousness.

Scavenger's face was pulled into an expression of realization and he caught VolFogg before he could fall and crack his head against the berth. He looked up to the ceiling, contacting Sideswipe, "Get the damn systems running kid! We gotta get this ship out of here NOW!"

Sideswipe yelped as they started firing at them, "You cock suckers! Eat my exhaust!" He flipped the ship into hyper drive and they took off at light speed; he suddenly brought the ship to a slow drift once they had passed Mars. "By my calculations…" he checked the scanners readings, "We should be nearing the spot where the wormhole formed…"

VolFogg's optics went dark, and he went almost completely limp. Except for his hands, which never let go of the other two. The two black-and-whites also refused to let go, even though they too had fallen back into unconsciousness.

Megatron had practically fallen face forward to the ground; he growled, "BLOODY IDOIT!" he threw a scalpel at the ceiling, it stuck into the metal like butter, "WHY DONT YOU BLOODY LEARN HOW TO DRIVE!!!" he roared and snarled.

Prime and Scavenger just looked at one another then sighed, looking back at the mechs: VolFogg and the GunMachines were out, RaiRyu and his twin were also out. The one with the weird visor and the blue and red paint was also out, as well as the full body red one, and the giant orange mech was unconscious as well.

"Blue is still awake..." Scavenger looked up to Prime, "Think we can get some answers out of him?"

Sideswipe was doing a little dance when he heard Megatron roar, "I know how to drive! You're all just to stupid to hold on to something!" He snarled and sat back down in his chair heading for the Worm hole.

The blue one was staring at the mechs with narrowed pink optics. He knew they were friendly but he was worried for his team... his brother, "My name is HyoRyu… not blue," he answered a cool voice.

Scavenger smirked, "So we have RaiRyu and HyoRyu... who's your friend you're holding onto there?" Scavenger settled some tools down and sat at the edge of VolFogg's berth, knowing he was fast into recharge.

HyoRyu looked up when hearing the question from the purple and green mech, "He's my brother… my twin brother, EnRyu."

There was a soft scrape of metal; the one with the hawk helm had stirred. The green optic visor flickered for a moment, and the mech let out a whirring chirp sound. Somewhat mauled rotor blades twitched slightly.

Megatron had practically jumped, "Bloody Primus what the hell was that??" He looked around to the hawk helm mech, watching his body twitch slightly. "Damnit, we have another one..." He looked towards Prime, "Prime get out of your little daze and get your ass to working!"

"Bite me Megs!" Optimus growled at the Decepticon, heading for the control deck, "I'll have Sideswipe take care of it! His lack of driving skills is going to get us all killed!" He stormed up to the cockpit, practically kicking Sideswipe out and forcing him to work in the medical bay.

The hawk-helmed mech, whom VolFogg had called GunGlue, managed to make a noise that sounded insulted, and his rotors twitched again. Clearly he was used to using them to help express his opinions and state of mind.

Megatron had practically kicked Sideswipe to the hawk-helmed mech, "Do some real work damnit!" Megatron turned around to the blue mech.

Sideswipe, having stuck his tongue out and made faces at the con, gathered up some tools and headed towards the smaller mech.

Scavenger blinked and nodded at HyoRyu, "All right, what about Greeny over there?"

"That's FuuRyu," HyoRyu answered simply, "He's RaiRyu's twin…"

Sideswipe helped the heli-mech turn over and he began to fix up his rotors. He heard a whirl and a click from GunGlue; how weird as it sounded he could under stand him, " Yeah sure I'll make sure they're oil so the stop rubbing the joints. "

GunGlue snorted, turning his head slightly and shifting his weight off his gun barrels. He carefully reestablished his hold on VolFogg's hand, not wanting to lose the contact. He was watching Sideswipe from the corner of his optic shield, keeping a careful optic on the strange mech as he worked on his rotor assembly. Every now and then he would look over at VolFogg and the other black-and-white, making a soft whir-chirp. The tiger-helmed mech would respond with a purring noise.

Megatron had crossed his arms, his expression unreadable due to his mask; his red optics blinked, "I'm curious..." he stared HyoRyu into the optics, "How old are you all anyway?" Megatron blinked again, suddenly hearing his comn come online.

"You might all want to hold on to something! We're entering the wormhole!" Optimus had shouted, steering the ship roughly, "So strap yourselves in!"

Megatron held onto the side of the birth as the ship jolted, "Damnit..." he looked to Scavenger and the old mech nodded. "Boys! Strap in and hang on tight, we have one hell of a ride to look forward to..." He went around the medbay, making sure the restraints were tight.

Scavenger went to Sideswipe, making him put down the tools and restraining the hawk-helm mech. He felt the ship jolt once more and looked up to the cockpit, "Prime I hope you can do this better than last time..."

"Hey give me a break! I haven't driven through anything like this in over two million years!" Optimus shouted over the comn line.

Sideswipe laid down on the berth with the mech named GunGlue, and strapped himself in. Scavenger checked them as well as all the others before buckling himself into one of the seats in Med-bay that were attached the wall.

The hawk-helmed mech grumbled something in the language he and his brother shared. His grip on VolFogg's hand tightened, and he looked over at the purple mech, watching as another joint started sparking. _::He took what was meant for us...::_

Megatron had strapped himself to extra seat across from Scavenger, he felt the ship shake and jolt until it was shaking violently. The lights flickered and there was the loud roar of debris from the outside, they were entering the wormhole. Scavenger gritted his teeth, "Hang on everyone!" The light flickered once more, a light blew out causing smoke to drift and the room to darken; it wasn't long till everything went black, and the winds and jolts became heavier leading to total darkness.


	5. Critical Problems

Chapter 5 ~ "Critical problems"

Optimus sighed with relief after they were launched out from the wormhole. The ship had minor damage, thank Primus. He put it on autopilot to let them drift at a slow pace that was quick enough but steady. He went down to med-bay, noting that the lights had practically blown. He turned on his headlights and went to replaced the bulbs that blew, " Everyone ok? "

GunGlue's optic shield glowed slightly in the dark, the heli-mech clinging to his berth with one hand while the other still grasped a grey-and-purple hand. GunDober had slid closer to the edge of his berth, though the tire mounted on one leg had caught the other edge and was helping hold him in place.

Megatron coughed as he got up from the seat, "Yeah, yeah we're good..." he looked around and found all the bots unharmed, noticing that GunDober was on the verge of falling off the berth. "Swipes help the boy would you?" The con turned around and spotted the bot in green twitch and stir, he was waking up.

Scavenger blinked after hearing a loud moan and turn towards the other twins, "Ah... nice to see you two... or at least I THINK you're both awake?"

Sideswipe nodded to Megatron, rushing over to pull GunDober back on the berth, and unstrapped himself. He continued on working on GunGlue's rotors. "Don't worry, we'll get him fixed up good ok? I promise... " Sideswipe whispered.

_::You better... he's MY twin.:: _GunGlue managed to bristle slightly. His optics wandered toward VolFogg again.

Prime had taken the moment to check out the yellow and green bots; Megatron had suddenly popped up on the other side. They saw FuuRyu stir and the yellow one name RaiRyu was shaking, badly...

Megatron frowned under his mask and looked up to see Prime look at the twins with hard concentration, "What are you thinking?" Megatron spoke up with arms crossed. Prime shook his head...

"Nothing..." he said; he kept feeling this force rush through him that was trying to reach out to the younglings. But he didn't know what would happen if he let it loose.

Sideswipe smiled at GunGlue, "I have a twin too… though we're not as close. His name is SunStreaker." He finished repairing the rotors and warmed some oil then squeezed it into the rotor assembly's joints. "Ok try them now."

GunGlue looked at Sideswipe for a moment, and then started his rotors. They quickly whirred up to full speed, slightly lifting him off the berth, but he didn't have enough energy to keep them going. He let them spool down, optic shield dimming slightly.

HyoRyu rubbed his helm, "3…" he said in a soft tone, sitting up on the berth after somehow bumping his head on an anonymous surface during the warp-jump.

Megatron blinked, staring at HyoRyu when finally hearing his answer, "You said 3...as in…3 years?"

HyoRyu nodded.

_::VolFogg is younger...:: _GunGlue muttered in Gun-speak. _::Though his A.I. is mature, so you wouldn't know... That and his ninja pride.:: _He looked over at the purple mech again.

Megatron just stared at them, as if they were all crazy. Sideswipe had the same expression until the former Con warlord spoke again, "That's... considered... YOUNG on our planet. You would all be-"

"Freakin' sparklings..." Sideswipe finally spoke up.

Scavenger had decided to check the scanners of the mechs, checking every line, every system, and every single circuit of their motherboard to see if there was any improvement. He growled and frowned deeply, there was a problem... The old mech looked up to Prime and waved his hand to come over; the former Autobot commander walked over to his teacher, Scavenger looked back at their "patients" then pulled Prime out of the room, closing the door behind them, "We have a problem..."

"What's wrong?" Prime asked.

Scavenger rubbed his temple with one finger, his expression stared disappointingly at the clipboard in his hand, "Prime..." he said slowly, "We don't have the right tools, the right resources, hell not even the right knowledge to fix them..." He noticed how Prime's expression was turning to a cold realization.

Prime blinked, covering his mouth and rubbing his face slowly, "They… they'll die…" he suddenly found interest in the floor, thinking hard over all the work they had down these past few hours, trying to get them to a survive. Only to find out that there's not much, maybe nothing they can do to save them… Prime breathed, "There's nothing we can do is there?"

He only saw the old mech's optics downcast, his old yellow optics showing the real truth. Prime swallowed and breathed, closing his optics slowly… "However…" Optimus looked back up to Scavenger, the old mech was tapping a finger on the clipboard.

Prime blinked, "What?"

Scavenger looked from the floor to the former Autobot Commander, tapping another finger, "There maybe one way…" He watched as Prime's expression turned to that of hope-filled joy.

"And?" Optimus was eager to know.

Scavenger sighed, putting the clipboard under his arm, "We know…" he began, "That they aren't Cybertronian, which means they don't have a spark. And we know that they are powered by some sort of life-force but here's the problem: it was created to be a controlled life-force, MAINLY by the humans." He looked over Prime, seeing as he was following, "Now there may be a way to break that bond, to make them independent and actually live longer than what the humans originally made them to be."

Prime nodded, "And that is?"

Scavenger smirked, "If we could combine a raw spark to their life-force…" he breathed, "Then there might be some hope for them to survive. Not to mention they would be living much better lives, lives that are uncontrolled!"

Prime had blinked confusingly, opening and closing his mouth a few times. He was finally able to get his mouth to work, "And HOW do we do that? We don't even know WHERE to get sparks unless you want to pry a femme's chest-plate open!"

Scavenger smirked, "Typical as always Prime, you weren't hearing what I was saying…" he looked to Prime's quizzical expression, "I said we combine them to raw sparks, and raw sparks DON'T come from a femme's chest-plate."

Prime blinked once more, his posture becoming a little slacker, "Then," he looked up in the old golden optics of Scavenger's face, "…how?"

Scavenger chuckled, "How is not the question…" he tapped the clipboard, "Its WHO." He watch Prime's face change, "Who is the one responsible for all of us Prime?" he looked at the former Autobot Commander in the optics, "For our CREATION?"

Optimus stared into his mentor's optics, his own growing wide, "You're… you're kidding?"

Scavenger shook his head, "Not even close to it Prime," he smirked, "He's the only one who can make this possible and you damn well know that."

Prime took a step back and rubbed his head, "But that's impossible…" he shook his head, "We don't even know even know where-"

Scavenger put his hand up to end his sentence right there, "Correction: YOU don't know where to get the sparks from him," the old mech's smirk grew, "But I DO."

"But-"

"Look, at least THINK about it Prime?" Scavenger saw the Autobot nod, "But I have to say that if their condition worsens, we don't have any other choice, all right?"

Once again, very slowly did the Optimus nod, "Only if their condition gets worse…then we head for Cybertron."

_Meanwhile_…

GunGlue put his head down, optic shield dimming again, still watching the purple mech and the other black-and-white. His rotors whirred once, then stilled. He was on the verge of sliding back into unconsciousness. Sparks flew from behind one of the wings on his helm, and his hip joint fizzled loudly.

Megatron jumped to the sound, he looked towards the bot, "Damnit! Sideswipe!" he watched as the young Autobot practically threw himself upon the smaller mech, doing whatever he could to fix him. GunGlue's whole body twitched as a large spark jumped from the middle of his back, and his optic shield flickered. VolFogg made a whirring sound from his engine compartment, the sound quickly fading into silence.

Megatron frowned under his mask, looking from Sideswipe to HyoRyu with his optics constantly switching back and forth. He had noticed Prime and Scavenger leaving the room, but didn't care to ask why, at the moment he was intrigued with these new mechs. He watched as HyoRyu was clutching to an EnRyu who had been fading in and out or unconsciousness, his pink optics flickered, and he was moaning.

GunGlue twitched again, another spark jumping from his back. He made a stuttering sound, and then dropped his head onto the berth. His green optic shield dimmed and went out as he slid back into unconsciousness.

Optimus walked back into the room and cleared his throat. Once he had all the online mech's attention he spoke. "We are headed for Cybertron. We need supplies and there is someone there who can help. But thanks to Sideswipe's hyper jump to Mars, we blew out the drive system which means we have to get there the old fashion way. It will take us about three days to get back."

Sideswipe gave a nervous laugh, seeing Scavenger walk up next to Prime with the clipboard and the old mech rolled his eyes, "Don't forget Prime, you've done your fair share of mess ups..." he gave a sleazy grin, "Remember that incident at the Blue Moon Spaceport?" He saw Prime glare back at him, shoulders slacking in defeat.

Megatron had overheard, grinning under his mask, "That was the best moment of my life..." the former Decepticon leader chuckled.

GunDober convulsed suddenly, his entire body spasming several times before collapsing back onto the berth. Twitches rattled arms and legs, and his engine made an unhealthy grinding noise. VolFogg twitched several times, then stilled…

Sideswipe quickly rushed over. He started to work on GunDober, as he would have to keep making temporary patches and repairs till they got back.

Scavenger looked around the room, seeing all of the young mechs before him lying either shattered or completely and utterly shocked. He noticed the one in the light blue and red paint hadn't moved. "What about that one?" The old mech looked over at Prime. "You get his name yet?" Prime shook his head and walked over the young mech, he found he had a green visor and a mohawk-looking crown.

VolFogg twitched again, struggling to claw his way back to awareness. He could barely feel the tight grips of the GunMachines on his hands anymore, though he wasn't about to say anything. His optics remained duller than usual. Turning his head, he watched Sideswipe working on GunDober for a moment, and then looked for the others.

Mic twitched and looked at the new bots. He turned his head, obviously angry about what happened. There was the faintness trace of tears on his pale cheeks. Sideswipe looked at VolFogg when he turned his head and smiled. He finished his patching on GunDober and sat down on the side of the berth rubbing the younger mech's back, to sooth the aching he knew was there.

Prime blinked, "Easy now little one..." he place a gently hand on the light blue and red mech's arm, "We're just trying to help you. Can you tell me your name?" He watched as the young mech was looking around frantically, obviously distressed. Prime looked back at Scavenger, "What's his status?" he saw the old mech search through the screen of pages on his clipboard.

Scavenger winced, "He's just as bad as the others... his systems could crash if we cant fix his wiring..."

GunDober didn't respond to Sideswipe at all, not having regained consciousness. VolFogg watched for a moment longer, then looked over toward the red and blue mech. "Mic... Mic!"

Mic looked at Optimus, and he began to let out a keening wail of his distress. He was hurting badly but it was his heart that hurt the most. He heard VolFogg, and how bad he sounded and he just broke. He began to wail loudly, scared, hurt, and without his brothers…

Prime jumped, "Shit..." he had to hold down the young mech due to the fact that he was at the point of breaking his restraints. The young bot was wailing louder; it was all Prime could do but whisper comforting words and hold him down, "Please we're just trying to help..." he looked at the mech with warm optics, "And for us to do that we need you to relax..." Scavenger was smiling overhead.

VolFogg struggled to sit up, looking over at the larger mech. "Mic!" Reluctantly, he let go of his teammates' hands, trying to brace himself. "Mic Sounders!"

Mic just wouldn't listen. His restraints broke around his hands and he shot up, burying his head into Optimus' chest plate and wrapping his arms around his middle and refused to let go.

Prime was a little take back by the gesture, but soon his shoulders slacked and looked down at the mech sadly. He placed a hand around the smaller mech, "Easy now..."

Scavenger in the meantime was paying attention to Vol, gently grabbing his hand and looking down at him, "Sit back down kid, your systems will blow if you strain yourself..." The old mech looked back up at Prime and sighed.

VolFogg gave Scavenger a dark look at the "kid", but said nothing. He looked toward Mic again, trying once more to sit up before collapsing back onto the berth. The ninja mech thought for a moment, then made a low, soft rumbling purr sound, something he'd learned from Mamoru. It was quite calming on the nerves, and should help somewhat

Mic snuggled into Prime's chest. "Why... what did…we do wrong...." He sniffled, leaning into the larger mechs touch. Sideswipe looked at VolFogg, he was purring. Something younglings on Cybertron do a lot when they are upset to calm themselves. Sideswipe started to purr back at VolFogg.

Prime's optics dimmed somewhat at the young mech in his arms, "I'm not sure young one..." he quickly recalled what the purple bot had just called him, "Mic Sounders... am I right?" He had noticed the young mech nod as his frame shook somewhat from the entire dilemma.

VolFogg looked at Sideswipe for a moment, then back to Mic. He'd been trying to calm the younger mech down, using something he knew worked on his own nerves. "It wasn't our fault, Mic... It was a bad decision on their part. They discarded us." He tightened his jaw for a moment, knowing that there were at least two people who hadn't betrayed them. "We did nothing wrong."

Prime tried his best to calm him down, but nothing seemed to be working. That is until he heard someone start to hum...

The voice was low, but recognizable as Megatron sat near by. He was working on the blue twin, humming a small yet familiar tune.

Mic began to relax against Optimus he began to hum along with the basic tune. He began to sway making Optimus do the same till he calmed down completely.

Optimus smiled and looked back at Megatron, "Don't stop singing or... at least humming, whatever you're doing..." Megatron smirked and nodded, having been fixing HyoRyu's leg.

Scavenger blinked down at VolFogg, "What do you mean, 'discarded' you? You're a team weren't you?"

VolFogg nodded slightly. "All of us, yes... but when our purpose was done, they tried to shut us down for good. They said they had no more use for us." His voice was bitter. "They built us, they helped us develop, and they called us their friends... and then they threw us aside as soon as there was no more use for us."

"That's unfair!" Sideswipe yelled. "You did nothing wrong! " Sideswipe growled. He was shushed by Scavenger and he shushed knowing better than to disobey the old bot.

Prime narrowed his optics, still listening to Megatron hum the song and Mic was in his lap now quiet and finally settled down. Megatron was listening in on the conversation, knowing all too well about the feeling, even when he had given orders like that himself.

Prime blinked then sighed, "Not all beings can be good...we all know that..." he gave a side-glance at Megatron who could feel the painful stare from his former enemy.

"And yet, not all bad, either..." VolFogg murmured to himself, thinking of one certain boy he had been particularly close to, who would have tried to save them had he known about what had been happening. The two GunMachines, roused to consciousness by Mic's wail, made a mournful sound, knowing where their team leader's thoughts were going.

Optimus sighed and held onto the small bot in his arms; it was going to be a long three days…


	6. Primus

Chapter 6 ~ "Primus"

_Two and half days later…_

During the past couple days; things went from bad to worse. Though the crew of the Guardian had gotten to know this group of mechs who call themselves the 'Yuusha' better when they were barely online, the conditions were becoming more and more critical. It was all they could do but keep the bots fueled and kept them talking, fearing if they were to slip into recharge it would be for good.

Now, with planet Cybertron only hours away, the situation involving the Yuusha had become even more intense.

Scavenger gave a stressful sigh, and then growled, "No progress... at all." He slammed the clipboard on the table that was located in the living room where he was going over a few notes.

Megatron looked up from his place on the couch, "We're almost near the planet, Scavenger..." he popped his head over the top of the couch, mask removed, "And Prime said you had a plan to help them if they got worse right?"

He saw the old mech grumbled, "I wasn't expecting them to get THIS bad..." he growled and was about to head towards the medical bay for his next shift to watch over the bots when Sideswipe came rushing in, panting, "RaiRyu... he's crashing..."

The twin GunMachines had gone completely unresponsive a day before. GunDober's entire body was wracked by tremors that nothing could stop, so his body was constantly being shaken. GunGlue was utterly still, except for jolts that passed through him whenever something else gave out, spitting sparks into the air. VolFogg could barely stay conscious for five minutes at a time, and those periods were becoming farther and farther apart

Optimus ran into the room. "Hey! We're here! We're descending. Scavenger, prepare the mechs to be moved we got to move fast."

Scavenger growled, and headed towards the medical bay with Megatron in tow, as Sideswipe and Prime were piloting and getting ready to dock the ship. Megatron headed in, strapping down the mechs one by one as Scavenger was trying to get RaiRyu stable enough so that he can at least survive a little longer. Megatron muttered a few curse words as the ship shook a little, and he stumbled to look out the window... He spotted the surface of Cybertron, they were descending into Iacon, the capital Autobot city of planet Cybertron.

The sound of metal on metal indicated that GunDober's seizures were getting worse. Sparks were randomly shooting from the side of his helm and the eyes of the tiger crest. VolFogg was unconscious again, his fingers twitching spasmodically every now and then. GunGlue had sparks flying from three different places at once. Their readings were slowly beginning to drop.

The ship had docked and Scavenger ordered the crew to get the group of Yuusha ready for transport. However, that had turned out to be more easily said than done. Each Yuusha had to be transported safely and as delicately as possible in order to prevent any more damage. Slowly, each battered and broken bot was handed to a crewmember, Megatron and Scavenger having to carry at least three bots each.

When approaching what looked to be large scrap and garbage yard, Scavenger had to settle the three ninja bots carefully on the ground before walking over to what was left of a large door. It was leaning against old generators, ship parts, weapons, pots and pans, etc. He opened it, revealing a passageway that was descending underground.

"This is the best access way I know of that will get us to the core of Cybertron quick enough," he had gone back to pick up VolFogg and the GunMachines. "Hopefully… it won't be too late…" he began walking down the steps of the passageway.

Prime looked warily at the dark tunnel, watching as Megatron had to squeeze his way through with the heavy Goldymarg on his back and EnRyu and HyoRyu in both arms.

It wasn't long until they had landed themselves in a dark chamber lined with all sorts of cables and tubes, the metal looking to be slightly fused together. Scavenger looked around for anything, a simple sign to indicate that they were in the right location. It wasn't until a soft glow emanating from above received his attention, and he looked up thoughtfully.

Prime stopped cold with Megatron and Sideswipe following the same action shortly after. His golden optics grew wide in awe; "So… so this is…" he couldn't seem to get his vocalizer to work.

Scavenger looked back at the Autobot, nodding, "The one and only, Optimus…" he turned his head back towards the ceiling. The glowing orb above shined brightly over the group, Scavenger smiled, "Primus…"

It wasn't until then that Scavenger felt the shifting of weight in his arms and he looked down to the bundle of bots; they were suffering. He winced, looking back up to Primus and breathed; settling the GunMachines down on the ground next to Prime, Scavenger carried VolFogg to the center of the chamber. He looked down to the smaller mech once more, holding onto him tightly, "Please…" he whispered, looking up to the glowing orb, "…let this work…" Scavenger knelt down on the ground, VolFogg in his arms and presented the smaller bot to Primus.

VolFogg's optics flickered as he managed to briefly claw his way to awareness, looking up at the glowing orb overhead. He stared at it for a long moment, but he was too weak to hold onto consciousness, and he slid back into unconsciousness as his hold on awareness slipped.

There was a long pause, and at first Scavenger thought that the orb wasn't going to respond. Glowing blue thread suddenly dispersed from the orb, rising down to the two forms below and floated around them.

Primus was answering their silent prayers.

The threads latched onto VolFogg's body, wrapping around him, embracing his tattered form. They retrieved him from Scavenger's arms, carrying the purple-coated mech towards the orb and encircling him further. They were healing him, his armor becoming whole once again and his strength increasing.

Scavenger looked up, obviously pleased, "It's working…" he looked back at the group behind him, "It's working! Bring them over!"

One by one, the injured were placed at the mercy of the glowing god. And one by one, they were lifted from the cold hard ground and into the warm light. The threads encircled their bodies, softly repairing every ounce of damage that was made to their mangled forms.

There was a sudden pulse, the threads pulling them closer to the orb. There was hush whisper, a soft and gentle voice speaking to them mentally. Their bodies were warm and secured, their optics closing to a mere slit gazing up at the glowing ball of energy. There were a few sparks of electricity, and each one of the Yuusha could feel something in their chest, entering it and enclosing around their very life-force, allowing every circuit in their body to react to it without any pain at all. Their bodies glowed, their limbs unmoving to the strange sensation growing inside of them, consuming them.

VolFogg stared up into that orb, curious but unafraid. He didn't have a reason to be afraid, the tremors that plagued him were finally gone, and he felt much better than he had before. The GunMachines, hovering to either side of him, were no longer convulsing and throwing sparks, they too were watching the orb. All three could feel that something was different, though they didn't know what.

The Yuusha felt the change. They felt something had transform inside them as their bodies hovered above the ground. They could feel the warm touch, the feeling of hands around their heads, around their cheeks, and lips. They felt the soft voice speaking into their audios, a voice of unknown origin, "Such brave little ones…" it said, echoing through their heads. "My… brave little children…" the voice had spoke one last time, before the glowing blue thread lifted the Yuusha down to the crew below.

Scavenger caught VolFogg and the GunMachines as Prime caught RaiRyu and FuuRyu, Megatron and Sideswipe caught their passengers as well. Prime looked over the bots in his arms, their bodies were fully healed and they both were now soundly asleep in his arms. He looked up to Primus, a smile spread across his face, "Thank you…"

And in a quiet response, the orb pulsed, releasing a bright flash that landed them back inside the Guardian's medical bay.


	7. Welcome to Cybertron, boys!

Chapter 7 ~ "Welcome to Cybertron boys!"

Prime had noticed that all of the young bots were on the floor, unconscious. He found RaiRyu next to him and picked him, putting him on the table and activating the scanner, he found some good signs, "He... he has a spark..." He turned around to the others who were currently lifting up all the slumbering Yuusha, "He has a spark!"

Scavenger smiled at Prime and nodded, "Told ya it would work..."

VolFogg slowly sat up, carefully testing his limbs as he climbed to his feet. The purple mech bounced lightly for a moment, and then was suddenly catapulting across the room, literally bouncing off a couple of walls, moving with lightning speed. After a few moments he touched down right where he'd begun, optics glowing.

Sideswipe spun in a circle trying to keep up with the purple mech's movements. He got himself dizzy and fell to the floor, watching the room spin around and around. The others didn't spin like Sideswipe did, but gaped instead.

Prime's optics twitched, "What... the hell..?"

Scavenger blinked his optics in awe, the smirked and chuckled, "Well I'll be damned..." he laughed, "Kid has some nice moves..."

Prime hadn't noticed that RaiRyu was stirring, and the yellow bot looked up to Prime dizzily, "Wha... what the..." Optimus blinked when hearing a voice and looked down the smaller mech, he smiled at the sight to see.

A moment later, two black-and-white blurs were bouncing across the room, one accompanied by the chatter of helicopter rotors. Crossing paths, then headed back to their team leader, who launched himself straight up. The next moment, there was only one where there had been three. Purple and white metal with rotors attached to one arm and tires on the other and finally a facemask. Then he split into three again.

"What the hell?! He's a gestalt!" Megatron shouted and backed away from the mech that was before smaller then him but was now up to his chin.

"Cool!" Sideswipe bounced over to him looking the new mech over.

Scavenger couldn't help but laugh; "Relax Megs, he's a combiner just like you and Prime..." He turned to the former Autobot leader and noticed that he was trying to help the smaller yellow bot to sit up.

Prime had him leaning against his shoulder, "Easy now, don't want to fall flat on your face now do we?" he watched as RaiRyu grumbled and his legs twitched.

The yellow bot's face was in discomfort, RaiRyu's optics blinked, something he found he couldn't do before and his face grimaced, "There's... a pain..." he was rubbing near between his thighs, "It hurts... between my legs..." He looked up to find FuuRyu being supported by Scavenger and seemingly getting to the same face of discomfort.

"We're a combiner," VolFogg confirmed, crossing his arms over his chest in his familiar "ninja pose". The two Gun Robot twins flanked him. "And so are those four, actually..." He looked at RaiRyu, tilting his head slightly, and then noticed a similar sensation in his own lower torso. "What is that...?"

Optimus blinked. "Pain between the legs?" Optimus' optics grew wide and his face suddenly went red. "Oh…" he knew what that meant.

EnRyu sat up and was rubbing his codpiece as well, groaning in pain, "Oh great... seven mechs with hard-ons." Megatron's optic twitched

Scavenger growled and settled FuuRyu on the table; the green bot had suddenly curled into a ball, moaning painfully. RaiRyu himself was shaking and he had leaned forward with Prime supporting him and holding onto his codpiece, "What's... what's happening?" He felt himself being lifted and placed back on to the berth. Laying down, he felt his legs being spread apart and he was blushing brightly.

VolFogg shifted slightly, the GunMachines making uncomfortable sounds as they too registered that strange feeling in their lower torsos. The three looked at each other, watching as FuuRyu and RaiRyu were placed on the berths.

Optimus lifted the other mechs on to the berths spreading each of their legs. He chased Sideswipe out, saying this was no place for a youngling at the moment. Megatron was dreading the excited about the questions that were to come as soon as the new 'equipment' they had was exposed.

After shooing Sideswipe out of the room, Scavenger looked down at VolFogg, "You might wanna get on the berth..." And with the pain ever growing, the purple bot had decided to follow to good piece of advice. He watched as VolFogg and the GunMachines settled on berth between Mic Sounders and HyoRyu; it was then that Scavenger had a look at RaiRyu first seeing as he was first to feel the effects; he pulled off the yellow bots codpiece gently and had almost busted out laughing at what he found.

VolFogg's optics narrowed slightly, and he moved to sit on the berth. The Gun Robot twins settled onto their own, watching to see what was going on, chattering softly to themselves.

Mic was laying curled up as well, his hand firmly between his legs. Gritting his teeth, he began to rub and it seemed to make the pain dull somewhat. He began to twitch slightly, not accustomed to the feeling.

Scavenger was shaking with giggles, upon opening RaiRyu's codpiece he had found practically a small interface that looked like it belonged on a youngling. Prime had taken a peek and walked off laughing his ass off and saying, "It's so puny!" Megatron in the mean time was grumbling, "Where the hell is a camera when you need one..."

Scavenger wiped the tears from his eyes, "It's still... *snort* growing though... *giggle* It's still got a long way to go..." he got up and went to check the other bots.

VolFogg's optics narrowed. "Is it not true that by your standards we are still very young?" he pointed out, bringing out one of his throwing blades and checking the edge for damage.

"Well can you do something?!" EnRyu shouted. "This hurts!" The others all gave a confirming sound. All but Mic, who seemed to have no problem at all. Though they couldn't tell he was rubbing his codpiece.

Megatron was practically stumbling in his laughter, and Scavenger had finally pulled out a few heads of needles. He flicked the tube and, ready to puncture, "Okay, this is a simple painkiller, should help with your... *snort* pain..." The old mech had to pull down RaiRyu's bottom armor and stick the needle in just above his interface, which didn't help much more as the yellow bot howled in pain.

VolFogg continued to check the edge of his blade, watching over the edge as the others were checked. He was used to pain, having felt it often enough. The GunMachines shifted uncomfortably, though they didn't make much in the way of sounds.

The other bots, hearing RaiRyu's cry of pain, said no to the painkiller and covered their crotches. Mic had a heavy blush on his face and he was panting slightly. He continued to feeling a much more pleasant pulsing.

Scavenger grinned mischievously, "Too late kiddies..." and thus he went on with needles in hand and pretty much puncturing all in the room. When he had arrived at Mic he stopped, smiling from ear to ear, "By Primus…" he chuckled, "Its been a few minutes with the new adjustment and he's already learned how to play with it..."

Prime had to shush him, "Scavenger!"

VolFogg hissed, his grip on his blade tightening. He brought out the other, checking it over before combining them into a massive shuriken, making sure they connected properly. GunDober growled slightly at the shot, while GunGlue hissed.

A few hours later and all the bots were lying on the berths, completely exhausted. RaiRyu had suddenly felt a presence next to him and turned to find FuuRyu snuggling up next to him, "I was cold… never was before though..." He saw RaiRyu blink and then smiled happily; HyoRyu had been sitting next to EnRyu, both trying to figure out this new adjustment to their bodies. And Mic was lying on the berth, close to going into Recharge.

Scavenger had to smirk at them all, "Congratulations, you're now fully formed Cybertronian Mechs," he looked over their puzzled faces. Prime had popped up to the old bots side, "I don't think they know what Cybertronians are..."

GunGlue and GunDober had migrated onto the berth VolFogg occupied, curling up against him and sinking into recharge. The purple mech was still awake, though, polishing the blades of his oversized throwing star and keeping a wary eye on the others.

Megatron chuckled, "Aww they look so cute together..." He was given a glare by the purple bot on the berth with gun machines.

Scavenger rolled his optics and looked back at the younger mechs, "All right, now that you all are... aware of your new tools," he rubbed his hands together, "Think it might a good idea for all of you to know a few good things about your bodies..."

"Oh, really?" VolFogg's voice carried the hint of sarcasm. The ninja mech gestured to his lower regions. "What gave you the first clue?"

Scavenger glared, "Har har..." he looked around at the young faces, then sighed. "All right let's cut the crap... You're all now functioning Cybertronians: which means that you all are going to be living like Cybertronians. You're all gonna have to learn how to eat the new foods and drinks, and having to lubricate - yes damnit we DO go to the bathroom as the humans do on this planet..." He looked between Prime and Megatron who were snickering madly; "And a little piece of info that you all should know: You no longer can be controlled by the humans, which means the minute you step foot on Earth no human has control," he smirked, "That goes for the earth back in your dimension as well..."

"That is acceptable." VolFogg nodded. His optics dimmed slightly, then brightened again. "Not that we would want to see them again, except maybe to rub their faces in it that they don't own us anymore." He looked off at something only he could see. "Though... there are two I wouldn't mind seeing again..." The ninja sighed. "Mamoru..."

Scavenger blinked, then sighed, "That may be impossible to do kid..." he shrugged, "But then again this universe is filled with surprises..."

Prime had stepped up and surveyed all the bots, he narrowed his optics, "We're gonna have to have them see a real medic, they need to have a proper physical so we know nothing major is wrong..." The former Autobot commander received a series of nods.

Pain flitted across VolFogg's face at the thought. Clearly there was someone back in his original dimension that he cared for a great deal. "We shall see..." He looked at Optimus warily. "Medic?"

Optimus looked down at the ninja bot, "Don't worry..." the former Autobot Commander knew EXACTLY who to call, "He's an old friend of mine..."

Moments later, the bots had found themselves walking the streets of Iacon; meeting in the ship was a no-go because every ship that was docked was on a security code and took note on who left and who came in. Meeting in the main medical center in the town was also a no-go due to the same reason and the fact that there were too many witnesses that may recognize Prime's voice. So they met the medic at his own private housing in downtown Iacon, being the chief medic he had his own private clinic and all the privacy they'll need. The minute the door had opened to the clinic, they were greeted with a bright smile and optics looking pleasingly through a red visor.

"Heya Red Alert!" Prime's voice rang as they entered the clinic.

VolFogg regarded the medic warily, crossing his arms over his chest. GunDober and GunGlue stood behind him, just as wary. Three sets of optics looked the medic called Red Alert over cautiously.

Red Alert looked passed Prime, Megatron, and Scavenger (seeing as Swipes was left to watch the ship) towards the group of smaller bots before them. Red Alert smirked, "I take it these are the younglings you told me about?" He looked up to Prime, the bot nodded and Red Alert looked back at the group of bots. He tapped his chin, "I see..." he decided to pick out a bot and pulled out RaiRyu first, "Let's get started shall we?"

VolFogg and his team followed on nearly silent feet, making very little noise despite their size and weight, the other two drifting back slightly to form a triangle formation. They were cautious and ready for anything.

Unknown to RaiRyu and Red Alert, the ninja team was watching silently. Red Alert had ordered RaiRyu to sit on the table in the enclosed room, and then allowed him to lie down while activating a scanner that glowed a green light over the yellow bot. This ended in less then 30 seconds and RaiRyu was allowed to sit up once more; Red Alert pulled out a box of tolls and pulled out a pen-looking tool, he examined his optics, his mouth and audios. Then proceeded with another tool to check his chest, which included prying his check-plate open and looking into his spark. Red alert nodded, jotting down a few notes, "Seems to be stable..." he smiled, closing his chest plate and looked down at RaiRyu, "Your spark is very healthy, thank Primus... now let's check your lower regions..."

VolFogg circled silently, inspecting the room while the Gun Robot twins remained where they were, watching like hawks. The purple mech, due to his Holographic Camouflage, could move around unseen, and he made full use of that ability.

Red Alert had made RaiRyu lay down on the table and also had him remove his armor which at first didn't know how. This led to Red Alert helping him and then RaiRyu found himself exposed to the medic, Red Alert took his time checking and making sure there was nothing wrong. He then pulled out a needle full of strange green liquid, "All right, I'm going to give you a stimulant that'll help protect your circuitry from any harmful viruses..." He tapped the tube and then stuck it in RaiRyu's side, the yellow bot had yelped and almost jumped off the table.

There was the softest of growls from GunGlue and GunDober, and VolFogg circled closer to Red Alert. The former GGG mechs were closer to each other as a result of what they had gone through, so the ninja mech was more protective of his comrade.

RaiRyu was allowed to pull his armor back on with the very uncomfortable feeling surrounding him; Red Alert was getting his tools ready for the next patient. The medic turned around to the yellow bot, "Well everything looks okay, though I would recommend consuming some energon soon, seeing as your diet was so used to consuming oil..." RaiRyu nodded shyly and was about to exit the room when, "Oh and one more thing..." the medic looked at RaiRyu seriously, "Be careful with your body, in the stage you're in now your body is very delicate and can be crushed easily. Also, stay very close to your elders when you go out on the streets, there are mechs out there that find freshly new armor a new trend in the market so be careful..." His red visor had flashed his concern-filled optics underneath.

VolFogg snorted to himself. He knew that RaiRyu was quite powerful even on his own, even more formidable when FuuRyu was with him. The ninja mech rejoined his team, the three drifting back out behind RaiRyu as silently as they had entered.

Scavenger smirked, having spotted the ninja team re-enter the room, "That's a nice little trick you have there, seen it a few times before back in my day..." the old mech had pulled out his pipe and was puffing on his slowly.

VolFogg tilted his head; shimmering back into view, "Have you, now." He looked back toward where Red Alert was. "You know what we went through... so you should understand why we went to see for ourselves what was going on."

Scavenger smirked, "Kid I've been through over 10 millions years of war on his planet, I've seen things you can only see in nightmares..." he looked back at VolFogg, "Trust me I understand completely..." Scavenger took another puff of his pipe, "And those moves of yours are pretty smooth, I've seen similar techniques back in the war myself..."

VolFogg tilted his head; if he'd had an optic rim to rise, he would have. "You have met ninja before?"

"Kid I've trained ninja of this planet," he pointed towards Prime, "He was one of my students before he saw the day of real combat, one of the few to master a single technique now impossible to Cybertronians."

VolFogg's head tilted the other way. "We have talents of our own. You haven't seen what we can do in our combined form."

"Which should be kept under wraps, the war is over so combining should be kept to a minimum due to the new laws..." he puffed at his pipe, then smirked at the thought, "However those laws only reside to the laws on Cybertron and Earth, not the entire universe..." Scavenger looked down at VolFogg, "Catch my drift?"

"Hmm," VolFogg tilted his head, then shrugged fluidly. "Should anyone threaten us, all bets are off, I will caution you. We will defend ourselves."

Scavenger nodded, "All right. Now then…" he then place both hands on VolFogg's shoulders and turned him around to face Red Alert, "I believe it's your turn for the exam..."

VolFogg looked at the medic for a long moment, then looked to the GunMachines. They responded with slight nods, moving to stand near the door while the purple mech followed Red Alert inside.

It only took a few hours, but fortunately they were done with the physical exam before the sky was getting dark. As the bots filed out Prime looked back at Red Alert to say his goodbyes, the medic himself had to stop them for one final word, "Remember to watch out for yourself Prime..." he smirked, "And we're always ready to take you back whenever you want to come back..."

He saw Prime's gaze lower, blinking and then looking back at the medic, "I'm not sure that will ever be possible Red..." he began to walk out the door, waving his hand, "Seeya around."

VolFogg and the GunMachines looked curiously at Red Alert, but made no comment. As the sky began to darken the Gun Robot twins were more visible than VolFogg was, his darker colors tending to blend more into the shadows. Exchanging glances, they followed the others back to the ship.


	8. Party Time

Chapter 8 ~ "Party Time"

When they arrived, the bots had been forced to go down to the living room. They filed in one by one, Scavenger guiding them to couch and chairs as Megatron and Prime scuttled to the kitchen and pulled a good 3 or 4 bottles of energon, Sideswipe was sitting at the counter sipping on his own drink. Prime pulled the top of the bottle off and poured the strange liquid into glasses, then picking up his own glass as Scavenger passed them around. He smirked, "Your first glass of energon guys, and a sweet celebration on your recovery!" He drank the liquid happily, unaware that the previous con leader was pulling out his own high-grade.

The purple mech looked at the strange liquid in the glasses dubiously. "What is this?"

"It's energon." Optimus answered. "Our food, fuel, what ever you want to call it." He sipped on his energon and spotted a high-grade bottle in Megatron's hand. "Oh no you don't; you put that away Megatron, none of that around the younglings!" Optimus scolded the ex-con like he was a youngling himself.

Megatron just tossed his mask on the kitchen counter, "Kiss my ass Prime..." he pulled the bottle off, "I have the right to drink, and as long as I don't give them any they'll be fine..." With a giant gulp, Megatron took a swig of the bottle, savoring the taste. The bots around the room watched him carefully as he put the bottle down, then one by one decided to take a taste at this new and strange drink.

GunDober and GunGlue looked at the glasses, then at each other. The tiger-helmed one turned to look at Optimus and the others, letting out a series of electronic purrs, hisses, growls, and yowling sounds, sounding like a very large robotic cat. _::And just what are we supposed to do with this?::_

Sideswipe got up and went over to the twins. He searched their bodies then snatched the glasses from their hands before opening a hatch near their back end and poured it in, "There you go. "

Prime's optic twitched, and he smacked his forehead, "Dear Primus..."

The bots had taken their sips of the liquid; EnRyu had been guzzling down his the minute he tasted it, finding it inviting. He let out a breath and put the glass down, "That was pretty good!" he smiled, optics strangely brighter than before, "Can I have some more?" The red bot's movements were quick when he walked up to Optimus, lifting his glass up and the Autobot poured some more energon in the glass.

VolFogg regarded his own glass dubiously for a moment, and then took a cautious sip. He made a face at the taste but didn't comment, then looked at GunGlue as he noticed the heli-mech's rotors beginning to twitch.

EnRyu licked his lips and downed the second glass. The others just finished licking their lip components as well. Sideswipe drank down the rest of his glass and sighed rubbing his stomach armor. The others watched him then did the same. They could really feel a lot more then they use to and their minds were not bound. They could decide what they wanted to do anytime THEY wanted. This was freedom.

FuuRyu's optics flashed, "Wow! This stuff leaves quite a buzz..." he drank the next round of energon that was poured in his glass. Prime and Scavenger were watching them carefully; they had already noticed that EnRyu's words were getting quicker as he talked and he couldn't keep still. They had quickly notice HyoRyu acting the same way, and RaiRyu's optics were flashing uncontrollably as he giggled.

VolFogg let out a yelp and dropped his glass as GunGlue suddenly took off, zipping around the room like a housefly on speed. GunDober wasn't far behind, weaving around legs and other obstacles at an insane speed. The purple mech ended up clinging to the ceiling, as close to the metal as he could get, trying to avoid getting run over by his own teammates.

Optimus, blinked. "Oh scrap… hit the deck! Sugar rush!!" he dived under a table. Scavenger got behind the counter, and Sideswipe giggled and chased after a few mechs playing with them.

Megatron was just sitting at the counter when the two GunMachines flew by; it startled him so bad that he had spilled some of his high grade and was cursing under his breath. It wasn't long till RaiRyu was grabbing the remote to the holo-screen and surfing through the channels, cackling wildly about whatever he saw. Mic had begun to sing with his guitar and HyoRyu was joining him.

A rather interesting expletive came from up near the ceiling. Though anatomically impossible, it certainly would have been interesting to watch should VolFogg ever decide to put anyone in that particular position. The ninja remained practically glued to the ceiling, keeping well out of reach and glaring at the others

Optimus slapped his forehead. After about an hour of this Scavenger and himself got fed up and they both shouted at the same time, "Bed time!"

Megatron was pretty much drunk off his rocker, "Aw *hic* come on Priiimmme..." he was slurring, having not noticed that EnRyu had been drinking some of his high-grade.

Megatron was giggled as he crawled to his feet with EnRyu in tow, both giving goofy grins. He hiccupped, "Hyo *hic* ryuuuuu...!" the red twin had practically tackled his blue brother, both went tumbling to the floor.

VolFogg still had yet to come down off the ceiling. He was stuck up there like a very large purple spider, glaring at whoever happened to be in his line of sight. GunGlue had finally touched down, and was curled up in the corner, making a whirring snore sound. GunDober was sprawled across his brother, equally out like a light. There were motorcycle tire tracks all over the floor and halfway up the walls.

Unfortunately, Prime and Scavenger weren't getting any positive reactions from the hyperactive mechs. Having no choice but to resort to excessive force, the last two responsible mechs began herding the younger bots into the medical bay. Some, mainly RaiRyu and EnRyu, began to fight back but only received a few bops on the head by a very irritated Scavenger.

Prime and Sideswipe had a hard time getting Megatron to his quarters; the former Decepticon leader just could not stop moving. It was after about a half and hour they were able to settle him down on his large recharge berth and leave his quarters for the medical bay.

He came upon Scavenger sorting out the bots; "All right we can't keep you in here forever..." he was pulling out some pills that would take care of their little "Energon Rush". The old mech gave each of them a pill, "These will help you recharge..." he said sternly, "and be glad that we have extra rooms on this ship or I would be cramming all of you in a closet..." Prime just smirked and shook his head, helping Scavenger escort the bots to their new room.

Finally, VolFogg dropped away from the ceiling, twisting in mid-air to land neatly on his feet. He gave Sideswipe a sour look, but decided to save any lecturing until the other mech was sober. "I would advise against doing that again, until we've had time to get used to that stuff. What we are used to consuming is nowhere near that potent."

Sideswipe looked at him and stuck his tongue out at him. "You're a spoil sport barney." He folded his arms behind his head and headed for the door.

Prime slumped against the couch of the living room with a sigh, "Remind me to get the LOW energy energon next time..." Scavenger smirked as he puffed at his pipe, the old mech sat down next to Prime, "They're kids Prime, what are you gonna do..." he stretched his bulky arms and yawned; it was late and pretty much all the crew was asleep. He blew a smoke, "Tomorrow we gotta restock..."

VolFogg looked at Sideswipe for a long moment, and then produced what appeared to be a mech-sized slingshot; clearly he had spent a lot of time around young humans. After managing to nail the other mech in the back of the head with a stray bolt, VolFogg headed for his own room without another word.

Sideswipe fell forward from the bolt. He rubbed the back of his head and began to sniffle. Prime sat up when he here such a sound," Oh no...."

Scavenger groaned, "I got it..." he stood up from the couch and looked down at Prime, "I'll take him to bed and then turn in myself, you gonna stay up for a while?"

Prime nodded and watched as the old mech scooped up Sideswipe and headed for a nice long recharge. Prime himself sighed once more, sitting back on the couch and stared at the ceiling, "It's gonna be a long day tomorrow..."

***************

VolFogg settled onto his berth with a sigh, he had barely stopped moving when he sensed two familiar presences in the room; the twins had found him. The purple mech shifted slightly, and a black-and-white form settled to either side of him, choosing to rest their helms on his back. VolFogg looked from one to the other, then put his head down and followed them into recharge.


	9. Off to Polyhex we go!

Chapter 9 ~ "Off to Polyhex we go!"

There was knock at the door the next morning, "All right kiddies! Wakey Wakey!" It was Prime. Optics alike flickered and winced as the doors to their rooms were opened and the lights turned on, a series of moans were heard. "Ah hush yourselves..." Prime tossed a few packets at each of the bots, "There's your breakfast boys, we're on a tight schedule today so hurry up and eat your breakfast bars!"

The pile of black, white, and purple on the berth went from completely still to a blur of movement in seconds. It was never a good idea to startle a sleeping ninja, much less three at once. GunDober barely managed to pull back his Iron Collar while GunGlue held his triple-bladed weapon at the ready, gun barrels glinting. VolFogg was in a battle stance, both boomerangs ready to throw. It took a moment for them to get their bearings and remember exactly where they were, and figure out who had just startled them awake.

Scavenger had tossed them a few packs of energon bars, "Eat up, we need to get to Polyhex and restock at the market before we head out for the Silver-Star colonies..." No matter what they were doing, they always found the old yellow-eyed mech smoking his pipe.

VolFogg eyed the old mech as he put his boomerangs away. "Doing that is not recommended. All three of us are still on a hair trigger. The twins are not called the 'GunMachines' for nothing." The twins both nodded affirmatively, putting their weapons away.

Scavenger shrugged, "Suit yourself, but don't be complaining that you're hungry later..." he was heading down the hallway, watching as Prime and Sideswipe were getting the rest of the bots up. They all shuffled in at the control room of the ship, some munching on their breakfast some not; Megatron sat in the chair with a hand on his forehead and mask somewhat dirtied, "Damn the high-grade..."

VolFogg appeared out of nowhere, giving Scavenger a sharp look. "While I can handle these bar-things without a problem, my teammates cannot. As you might have noticed last night, they do not have features like the others. They cannot ingest energon like you can."

Scavenger growled, "Well there always other ways, besides that was their first time even... consuming energon. It's like that with everyone's first time," he looked back at the ninja bot, "Now get your asses over here, you guys need to get ready."

The Gun Robots dropped down from overhead, landing behind and to either side of the purple mech. Two green optic shields fixed on the old mech, and GunGlue let out a whirring sound.

Within moments, they were heading for the streets of the city; they had to take the monorail towards the city of Polyhex seeing as it takes a few hours to go and get back. Prime took a swig of his bottle of energon; he passed to Megatron who was still on his hangover. The eight Yuusha were sitting near their new 'guardians' in their own seating cabin with a window that looked over the landscape of Cybertron. The twins sat close as Mic was sitting close to Prime and 3 ninja bots were in their own little group.

Prime looked up to the bots, "You're all going to love the market, but fair warning: you all need to stay close so none of you get lost..."

Megatron smirked, "Riiight, especially when Polyhex was the hell-spawn city during the war..."

VolFogg was looking out the window at the passing landscape. "Such a strange planet," he mused without looking away from the view. "So different from the world we are used to." GunDober looked over at Prime, making a snorting sound.

Scavenger smirked towards the ninja bot. "Pretty much, it's purely built for organisms like us..." They were traveling over the lake of the green energon springs, "Not particularly like Earth but its pretty good." A bell rang, indicating the next stop, Scavenger puffed a smoke and got up from his seat, "Get ready for rush hour..." the monorail entered into a station, which slowly came to a stop.

Mechs and femmes alike were allowed to get off, the Guardian's crew they filed out at the station's gate.

The ninja team stayed close to each other and to the others. The Gun Robots were content to let VolFogg lead the way, staring around at the sights. They had never seen anything like this before.

Prime looked back at the group, counting the heads and smiled when finding that everyone was here, "All right, you all know the rules..." He began to lead them down a large hallway towards an opening that had light shining through the doorway. Once passing through, the crew found themselves looking over a hustling-bustling market just FULL of Cybertronians big and small.

"Like the markets of Tokyo," VolFogg commented after a moment. "Only much larger." He surveyed the market for a long moment, glancing back to make sure the twins were still there. Both black-and-whites were trotting along after him, staying close while still managing to stare.

Scavenger tapped Prime's shoulder, "I think we could get the cargo faster if we split up... I'll take the ninja trio."

Prime nodded, "SideSwipe can go with Mic to pick up the energon reserves and Megatron can take HyoRyu and EnRyu."

Scavenger smirked, "That leaves RaiRyu and FuuRyu in your care..." he watched as the Autobot nodded and went ahead to collect the groups.

VolFogg looked at Scavenger for a moment, then walked after him. GunDober whirred softly, and GunGlue chose to remain silent. "Where are we going, and why?" the purple mech wanted to know.

Scavenger looked down at purple ninja, "We gotta stock up on weapons supplies, be much faster if we split up and gather everything rather than going everywhere as one big group..." The old mech checked his account as they passed a few stands selling certain amounts of alien produce and artworks, "I hope I have enough creds..."

"Ah." Volfogg thought for a moment. "Given time and materials we can produce our own ammunition... these two use a special kind of projectile in their machine guns."

Scavenger smirked, "Good to know, but we need special ammunition if we're gonna be going after bounty heads..." they came upon a warehouse, the sign written in Cybertronian letters: "Universal Ammunition market". The old mech smirked and went inside…

VolFogg and his team followed Scavenger, remaining in a group. All three looked around with wary curiosity. After a moment, VolFogg decided to check in on the others, tuning into the special Yuusha comm frequencies.

Scavenger had spotted a few good stands, asking the mechs or femmes who were selling about the cost and what if he could make a good deal. He was able to get a few goods: a few boxes of black shells and fire explosives; he was going to go visit the next row of stands when he heard a very familiar insane-filling laughter. His optics twitched, "Oh no..." he turned around slowly, "Please dear Primus don't let it be HIM."

GunGlue looked at the old mech curiously, letting out a soft, questioning chatter. VolFogg stiffened slightly, optics turning in the direction of that laugh. GunDober shifted nervously, easing closer to his brother and team leader.

And unfortunately it was HIM standing at a weapons stand a few feet over was the helicopter-con known only as Cyclonus with Demolisher right next to him. The orange-face, green-optic maniac had spotted the old mech, "Well lookey, lookey here!" he giggled madly, "It's the old coot! And just where the hell have YOU'VE been these past 5 years?"

Scavenger groaned.

"Someone you know?" VolFogg murmured, eyeing the strange mech warily. He could practically sense GunGlue and GunDober tensing behind him, prepared to either combine or unleash hell from four barrels should they have to.

"Just an old... very annoying soldier..." Scavenger looked up to Cyclonus, "I've been busting bounty heads and training, what ELSE would I be doing in this time of peace?"

Cyclonus snorted and Demolisher had rolled his optics, "Ah you're just as boring as usual, and yet you get some suckers to train eh?"

Scavenger growled, "They don't need the training, and you know damn well know I can pull your spark out in a micro-second if I wanted to..."

Cyclonus wooed and laughed again, "Yeah, yeah whatever old timer!" he happily walked past Scavenger with Demolisher following and they headed out of the market.

Scavenger growled and groaned, "Why do I even bother..."

"A very irritating mech," the purple ninja observed, watching the pair leave. GunGlue relaxed, making a rude sound in the direction of Cyclonus and Demolisher. GunDober snorted.

Scavenger sighed, "Very, it was worse having to work with the guy back in the war..." he grumbled, "Lets hurry up and go, I don't want to be here when the crowds get heavy..."

Prime himself was having a hard time; hiding his identity was one thing, but constantly getting puzzled stares from civilians was getting uncomfortable. They had already gotten their supplies, FuuRyu and RaiRyu were each carrying a box as well as himself, he called in Scavenger, "You get the stuff?" there was an answer at the other end, "Oh PERFECT! Figure he would be there...ah well at least you got the stuff..." he looked back at the twins after turning off his comn, "Lets go boys..." they were heading towards the center of the market, unaware of dark optics that were following them closely…

The ninja team followed Scavenger, moving in the nearly silent trot they'd perfected. Despite their size they could be very quiet when they wanted to be, quieter than others thought they should be. They moved through the crowd after the old mech with some ease, ghosting past other mechs without really being noticed.

Prime sighed, finally seeing the center of the market where a large fountain was placed with statues in the middle... resembling him and Megatron before his upgrade. Oh how convenient, he groaned, trying to hide his face as FuuRyu and RaiRyu were following him. They were unaware that someone was following them from behind and was creeping ever so closer to the young bots.

"We'll take your word for it," VolFogg told Scavenger. "Even from that brief encounter we could tell that he was the type who can drive someone right up the wall with very little effort."

Optimus couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. But every time he looked back he saw no one out of the norm. He passed by the fountain keeping his head low and the two younglings close to him. He didn't like this...

RaiRyu was trotting along, trying to keep up with the box of supplies in his hands, "Wait up!" his brother and Prime was moving too far ahead. He growled and tried to move faster when he tripped over a cracked stone top on the sidewalk and fell, dropping the box on the ground. He grumbled and picked up the box, dusting himself and looked around… oh no, "Fuu??" he couldn't find his brother anywhere.

GunGlue's rotors whirred and he glanced upward, wanting to be airborne. Being a flyer he didn't like being on the ground all the time. VolFogg touched his shoulder lightly, a silent promise that he would get a chance to fly, then increased his pace slightly to trot next to Scavenger. GunDober made a nervous sound, looking around, as if sensing something.

Optimus stopped and looked back. "Where's RaiRyu?" He looked back and forth and didn't see him. "Oh no…RaiRyu?!" he became frantic. He saw Megatron, approaching and Shoved Fuu over to him. "Megatron watch him, RaiRyu is missing." He then took off into the crowd shouting the yellow bot's name.

RaiRyu was looking around frantically, about to go off and search for his brother by himself when he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. He turned around and found himself looking up at the face of dark mech with red optics, his body cloaked with a raggedy black clothe. The mech smiled, a greasily smiled that seemed to make RaiRyu shutter; "Who..." RaiRyu was stopped cold, "...are you?"


	10. The missing lightning dragon

Chapter 10 ~ "The missing lightning dragon…"

VolFogg's head went up as he heard the calls. A moment later he and the twins were bounding ahead, homing in on Prime, darting neatly through the crowd until they reached the former Autobot commander. "What is going on?"

Optimus spotted the three ninjas. "RaiRyu! He's missing! I think someone might have picked him up. Oh why didn't I keep a closer optic on him… he's just a sparkling." He moved forward and kept yelling RaiRyu's name.

RaiRyu could hear the cries, he could hear the pleas as this unknown stranger was dragging him into the alley and down into a basement under one of the older buildings of Polyhex. The box of supplies was left on the street, scattered all over the sidewalk from where he once stood.

Permission or no permission, GunGlue was in the air in a thunder of rotors, circling overhead, looking for any signs of the yellow mech. It took a couple of passes before he spotted the box of supplies and went into a hover. "He's found something!" VolFogg was a mere purple blur as he made a beeline for the hovering heli-mech.

Optimus saw the box and let out a cry of sorrow and fury, "No no no no! RAIRYU!!!!!!!" He screamed at the top of his voice box. For a moment he thought he heard the little yellow mech. He dashed about asking random mechs and femmes if they had seen him. A few had and pointed him in different ways. It has been hours and they were still searching oh anything could have happened to the little guy.

It was getting near sundown; the whole Yuusha team had been searching RaiRyu including a very frantic Prime. They had tried the market 3 times, downtime about 4 and the uptown at least twice, and still nothing. FuuRyu was in a double panic, his twin was missing and he had no idea where to start on this alien planet; Prime had been going from alley way to alley looking for him, it was nightfall now.

Quick blurs of movement were all that could be seen of the ninja team as they followed their own search pattern. Currently VolFogg was perched on the edge of a building, staring down into the alley below. The purple mech was about to move to another spot when a tiny flicker of yellow caught his eye; a paint chip. He stared at it for a moment, and then dropped into the alley for a closer look.

Optimus, having no luck, finally fell into Scavenger's arms and cried. He didn't know why but it felt like his lost his own child. So this is what it felt like to be a worried mother hen as Sideswipe would call it. He swore if someone had his RaiRyu… his? He was going to rip them apart piece by charred piece once he blasted them to the pit and back.

Pink optics flickered; his mouth was mumbling incoherent words as he walked shakily a slow and steady pace through the alleyway. His armor had been ripped off; from his shoulder armor to the armor on his back, to the armor that covered his most important regions, all of it was gone and sparks of electricity were flaring. Energon and oil dripped from his arms, legs and in between his thighs...

VolFogg's optics blazed angrily as he landed next to RaiRyu, sending a signal to FuuRyu and the Gun Robot twins. GunDober actually managed to run over Prime's foot as he answered the call…

Prime had jumped, yelping when feeling the smaller bot's lightning force run over his foot. He dusted off his foot, suddenly noticing FuuRyu running by after GunDober; the former Autobot Commander blinked and ran after them. His mind was screaming for hope, hope that the young yellow bot was all right and unharmed…

His hopes however, were crushed when he found VolFogg supporting a shuddering, sobbing, and practically tattered RaiRyu on the ground. The Ninja bot was trying to keep him awake and stable seeing as his pink optics were fading and his form was swaying this way and that. Optimus had stumbled over and gathered the small mech into his arms, looking into his pale face. "RaiRyu please…" he watched as the smaller mech cried out in pain, FuuRyu was next to him and holding his hand. RaiRyu's pink optics flickered and Prime had to nudge him a little to make sure he was still online, "Shh… easy RaiRyu… easy… please you have to stay awake alright?"

RaiRyu was slightly incoherent, but somehow was able to give a slow nod. FuuRyu looked on the verge of breaking down, and Prime was just sitting there and cradling the yellow mech in his arms. Red Alert's clinic was miles away from their position, he couldn't fly nor could his vehicle mode drive fast enough to get there.

However… that copter-bot seemed capable…

Prime looked over at GunGlue, his optics were pleading, "You can fly can you?" The smaller mech nodded, "Please, you need to get him to Red Alert's clinic…" Prime breathed and stretched out RaiRyu in his arms to GunGlue. "You know where it is, I know it…Please get him there as quick as possible. We'll meet you there as soon as we can…"

GunGlue didn't need to hesitate; heaving RaiRyu in his arms he dashed down to the medical clinic where they were that previous day. Luckily was close enough to the borders of Polyhex so he was able to get the yellow bot there in less than thirty minutes. Scavenger had called in on Red Alert earlier and told them who was coming, so the minute that GunGlue arrived the medic had already pulled RaiRyu inside the clinic.

VolFogg and GunDober were tearing down the streets after their teammate and RaiRyu. They were fast enough that they outdistanced the others, joining GunGlue in waiting by the clinic for any news on RaiRyu's condition. The twins stayed close to their team leader, wary and on alert.

Optimus and the others arrived an hour later. Prime looked ready to drop and he did right into Scavenger's arms. "You've had quite the trying day Optimus... go to sleep. I'll wake you when we get news on RaiRyu."


	11. Scarred spark

Chapter 11 ~ "Scarred spark"

Red Alert had slowly left the operating room, having spotted a bench and sat down tiredly. The medic rubbed his temple, noticing Scavenger walking up to him obviously waiting for an answer. Red Alert sighed, "He's stable..." he looked over the group of Yuusha, FuuRyu in particular had stepped up next to Scavenger, "He'll be able to go by tomorrow evening, he just needs some time to physically heal here..." He noted the relieved looks, however he had to added the important piece of info, "However..." he wiped off some mech fluid on his face, "Mentally healing might take some time... I saw some damage that meant he was probably sexually abused or even raped..."

Both the Gun Robot twins growled at that. GunDober's engine growled, and his brother's rotors made a nasty-sounding rumbling whir. VolFogg bared his dental plates in a snarl. Being a police car and having spent most of his time on Earth, he was more familiar than he'd like with such crimes.

FuuRyu started to break down when he heard what happened to his brother. He was enclosed in an embrace of his two older brothers HyoRyu and EnRyu. Mic jumped in and gave him a hug too. "Can… Can I sit with him?" FuuRyu asked as fat energon tears leaked down his pale cheeks.

Red Alert smiled sadly, "You can, just make sure to not disturb him. He needs his rest..." the medic stood up and opened the door, allowing FuuRyu inside. The green bot came upon his yellow twin upon a table, his lower regions covered over by a stasis board while tubes, wires, and such were connecting to every point of his body. A monitor was set up to count his spark-beat; his breathing was slow and steady.

There was a flicker of highly reflective silver, and then there was one robot where three had been standing. The purple and white mech was still shaking with anger, hands tightly fisted. His optics blazed over his facemask, and the rotors on his left arm were beginning to spin. Normally the ninja mechs were among the more levelheaded and even-tempered mechs, but even they could be pushed too far.

Scavenger had to rush over to the combined ninja bot, he growled, "There's no need for that! We have no idea who even did this to him yet so disconnect and get your ass in line!"

FuuRyu in the meantime was sitting by his injured brother, holding his limp hand and rubbing it softly. RaiRyu himself was completely out cold, laying practically exposed to the whole group save for the stasis board.

Big VolFogg didn't move. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared at Scavenger. "We combined so I could stop the twins from going hunting. Would you rather have them going out and doing that before we have any more information?"

Scavenger gritted his teeth, biting onto his pipe roughly. He looked back at Prime who was still out of it and then back at the yellow twin; he watched as RaiRyu's body jolted and he screamed for a mere 3 or 4 seconds before slipping back into unconsciousness. FuuRyu stood up and leaned his forehead onto RaiRyu's, whispering comforting words and stroking his helm.

Scavenger sighed, "We never meant for this to happen..."

"We know," the ninja combiner replied softly. "But there are things that no one can plan for. Some things are universal, and evil people is one of them." His optics flashed. "Though there will be hell to pay when the person who did this to him is found."

Scavenger nodded and looked back at the green and yellow twin, it was going to be rough from here now on end. The next evening, RaiRyu was allowed to leave the clinic with Prime and FuuRyu supporting him on either side. They took the monorail back the docks, the yellow bot having leaned against his twin the whole way without even muttering a single word. Prime had quickly notice this, which meant that getting any answers out of him was not going to be easy.

The ninja team had yet to separate back into three mechs. Big VolFogg kept a cautious eye on the others and their surroundings. He had the distinct feeling that once they found RaiRyu's assailant, GekiRyuJin would be getting involved, and the results wouldn't be good. He was unaware he'd said that aloud until the Cybertronians turned to look at him.

Scavenger narrowed his optics, "What do you mean getting 'involved'?" he had asked before the monorail came to a stop and they filed out and onto the station. Meanwhile Prime was helping RaiRyu walk towards the docks with FuuRyu helping him on this other side. They had arrived at their ship's dock and headed inside, Prime leading the yellow bot to his quarters that he shared with his twin.

"GekiRyuJin is the combined form of FuuRyu and RaiRyu," Big VolFogg explained, looking at the old mech. "An angry, hurt RaiRyu and a furious FuuRyu... you do the math."

Scavenger winced, looking back a the yellow bot once they entered into the twin's quarters, "I don't think he'll even be able to combine with his twin for a while..." he watched as Prime was giving RaiRyu some of the medicated energon, "Actions such as rape can leave a lot of damage, I've seen even the most toughest and the most ego-centric mechs go down into a void of silence after an action such as that..."

"True." Big VolFogg watched FuuRyu and RaiRyu for a moment. "But even if they don't, the other two still can, and ChoRyuJin can deal out one hell of a beating even though he's a specialist in defense."

Scavenger nodded towards the combined ninja bot and looked back at Prime and the twins; he was trying to get questions out of RaiRyu but the yellow bot wasn't responding at all. Sighing, the old mech pulled out a small vial out of his subspace; it was full of green liquid that glowed slightly. Scavenger pulled off the top and walked over to the yellow bot.

Prime had spotted him and frowned, "Scavenger... you know those are illegal on this planet..."

"Yes, all of us but Mic are combiners." Big VolFogg watched Scavenger with narrowed optics. "Is that what I think it is?"

Scavenger smirked, "Depends... what do you think it is exactly?" he looked back at the ninja bot, ignoring the glare that Prime was giving him.

"Something that will help you get the answers you seek from Rai." Big VolFogg moved closer, the parts of him that were the twins eager to hear what had happened.

"Bingo..." and with that, he pulled RaiRyu's chin up and parted his lips. He poured the green-glowing liquid down RaiRyu's throat and then allowed the yellow bot to sit back against the wall on his recharge berth. Scavenger looked at Prime, who was still glaring holes into his skull, "Go ahead..."

Prime narrowed his optics at the old mech and then leaned down to RaiRyu's level, "RaiRyu...?"

Big VolFogg eased closer, as silent combined as his three parts were separately. Not easy for a mech of his size, but it was an invaluable skill. He stood within easy hearing distance, listening intently.

"RaiRyu..." Prime called again, "Can you tell me who captured you?" his reply was a pain-filled groan.

RaiRyu's optics flickered and he was looking dully at Prime, "Dark...and black with a purple sign..."

Purple sign? Prime narrowed his optics, "That means it was a Decepticon..." he looked at the yellow bot carefully, "Did you catch his name RaiRyu?"

There was complete silence within Big VolFogg; normally there was a fair amount of communication between the three parts of his A.I. Now there was internal silence; all three were listening intently. They wanted to know the name.

RaiRyu's lips tremble, "He said his... name was..." his head was moving slowly up at Prime, "His name was... Darius..."

Scavenger blinked, optics suddenly wide, "Darius? As in the Darius Con bounty head we've been looking for?" RaiRyu looked up at Scavenger, unsure.

"Bounty..." Big VolFogg's eyes flashed again. "If this is the same mech, then you will not be alone in the hunt."

Scavenger looked back at the ninja bot, "Yeah, but the problem is that the bounty head has to be alive in order for us to collect the reward..."

Prime tapped his fingers, pulling up a tech-image on his mini holo-vid that was located on his forearm, "Is this him RaiRyu?"

RaiRyu was trembling, moving back on his berth when he saw the image, "Yes..." he was pushing himself against FuuRyu.

Prime didn't need any more answers and stood up, he sighed, "Damn, from what we know about this guy he's going to be moving constantly..."

"He can run, but he cannot hide." Pink-red optics burned with a steady glow. "Not when he has us on his trail as well... our original purpose was to gather intelligence, to track. That is why we are so stealthy, besides our being ninja."

Scavenger narrowed his optics, "Easy..." he smoked at his pipe, seeing Prime settle RaiRyu down for a well-deserved recharge, "If we're gonna catch this bounty head, we have to do this together..." FuuRyu sat next to his twin, slowly lulling him to sleep as Prime watched them, he too looked up at the ninja bot, "And he's not the only bounty head, for us to survive we're gonna need to catch more."

"We have nowhere else to go, and no other purpose," the combiner pointed out. "In our former dimension we were fighting a war against the alien Zonders; we were made to fight. All of us have skills that reflect that, though the dragons of fire and ice were built with defense and rescue in mind more than attack."

Scavenger smirked once they left the room with Prime and ninja bot, "Well things have changed... for ALL of you and you are ALL are free to choose what you want or don't want to do."

Prime nodded, "And tomorrow we might want to check out the market again to see if we can find Darius..." he looked over at Scavenger, "And collect the hefty prize..." he grinned.

If Big VolFogg had had a visible mouth, he would have been grinning fiercely. "That sounds like a plan... Tomorrow let the hunt begin." Finally separating back into three, the ninja team headed back to their rooms.

The night was expected to be a quick one, however the unfortunate screams of RaiRyu's voice made it very uneasy. He had a few nightmares during the evening, that left FuuRyu sleeping with him on one berth all night, even making Prime come in for a few visits.

Thank Primus the morning came, and the bots were sitting in the living room with their breakfast, Prime sat with a plan placed out on a holo-vid, going over the instructions with Scavenger, Megatron, and the ninja bots. For their safety, the rest of the Yuusha were stay on the ship with Sideswipe which left the blue bot a chance to teach the remaining Yuusha about some Cybertronian information.

VolFogg and his team were listening intently. They were absorbing every bit of information, making note of their own capabilities and how they worked with the plan. All three had readied themselves for the hunt, and to fight if necessary.


	12. And so the hunt begins

Chapter 12 ~ "And so the hunt begins…"

"All right…" Prime turned off the holo-vid, "We all know what to do, so let's get moving before dark..." After shuffling out, Prime decided to take up the quickest route to the Polyhex downtown area; upon entering the very spot where they found RaiRyu they started searching through the alleyways.

VolFogg and the Gun Robot twins were quick blurs of movement, when they were seen at all. They moved through the alleys quickly, making note of anything and everything. Nothing escaped their notice. One of the twins found the trail of spilled fluids RaiRyu had been leaving, and began following it back to its origin.

Scavenger had been hopping the buildings and was following the ninja bots quickly. Prime and Megatron were lurking around the alleyways, looking through the old and rotten buildings and asking any homeless if they saw anything.

GunDober darted through the shadows as if he were one himself, stepping so lightly he barely made a sound. Only someone who knew precisely what to look for would have spotted him as he followed the trail, Iron Collar ready to launch. GunGlue was following up above, darting along the rooftops, while VolFogg alternated between the high and low roads.

Scavenger as closing on what remains there were of any evidence, the variety of liquids that RaiRyu left behind led a trail towards an old market shop that used to sell moon flowers. Oh how disgusting; he narrowed his yellow optics and hopped upon the roof of the building.

VolFogg was a quick flicker of purple as he headed for an opening, his frame shimmering before vanishing from sight. GunGlue and GunDober took up holding positions in certain places while their team leader went in to see if there was anything left inside, or anyone. At his signal they would be all over anyone inside within moments.

Scavenger turned on his comnlink to Vol, "Be careful, one of the main reasons he's on the bounty list is because he has the ability to blow up anything with the snap of his fingers..." The old mech himself was climbing down the steps of the building. He had reached the basement, coming upon a few un-opened boxes... fairly secured unopened boxes...

"My Mirror Coating shields me against explosions," was the response as Volfogg slipped through the old building, moving through the shadows like a shadow himself. He was moving under full Holographic Camouflage, invisible, sharp optics taking in everything around him. Hearing something, he paused, turning up the gain on his audial receivers.

His optics landed on Scavenger, starring down at the cargo boxes with wide optics, "Damnit..." he whispered, "Whatever you do, be careful where you step... He's laced the place with nano-mines..." There was a loud shuffling sound, and both looked up towards the ceiling, footsteps were banging as they walked across the floor...

"I had noticed." VolFogg was stepping very carefully, optics set to detect the mines. Stepping toward the wall, he swarmed up the wall supports like a robotic squirrel, directing GunDober and GunGlue to move in, but carefully. VolFogg himself took to the ceiling, moving silently from one support beam to another.

Scavenger had to hop from one corner to the other to follow the ninja bot, he crawled up after him and landed himself on the very floor where Darius was standing. The outlaw himself was lurking around a number of things, mostly the packages full or peculiar and questionable cargo. Scavenger scowled, "Damn..." he whispered.

VolFogg moved until he was directly over the outlaw. GunDober was coming from another direction, and GunGlue was easing in from a third. All three were closing in, and VolFogg was preparing to pounce.

Darius gave a low chuckle, "That would be a very unfortunate choice my young friends..."

"So says you," VolFogg snapped coldly. The twins circled around to perch beside him, preparing to combine.

Darius grinned, turning around in lightning speed and blast the twins towards the wall. Scavenger growled and launched himself on Darius, who turned around to the old mech and snapped his fingers. That led to Scavenger's left shoulder imploding and leaving his arm mangled and sparking with electricity, "Fuck..." the old mech staggered backwards and tried to bring his fist together.

VolFogg and the twins combined in a second, Big VolFogg activating his Mirror Coating and turning the impact into the DaiKaiten DaiMadan. A moment later he was back in and in full charge, a blur of movement. His optics were blazing with fury.

Darius laughed, "A combiner? How fun this shall be..." he snapped his fingers again, aiming for the ninja bots waist. Scavenger got up again and tried to charge again when Darius snapped his fingers and blew up his leg, the old mech went down for the count.

Big VolFogg was out of the way in a second. He weighed his options. If he could pull it off properly... he could disable the outlaw without doing serious damage or killing the prey. His CPU raced as he calculated angles and trajectories. The conditions were favorable.

"DaiKaiten Madan!"

Darius had snapped his fingers at least five times, suddenly hearing sirens that probably responding to the explosions. "Blast it..." he grumbled, having blown half the room, the outlaw looked back at the ninja bot and saw he was about to charge. He grinned and snapped his fingers one last time, in an instant the spot where he once stood was up in smoke and Darius was gone.

Big VolFogg's DaiKaiten Madan had hit its mark, as the smears of mech fluid proved. The razored mirror particles had gotten into Darius before the mech had vanished. The ninja combiner landed in the middle of the space Darius had occupied, hissing angrily.

Scavenger watched as a dismembered hand rolled across the floor, spilling mech fluid and oil all over the metal. Scavenger was trying to sit up, having heard the sirens, "We need... ugh," his shoulder was smoking and bleeding oil, "...to get out of here... cops don't take to be trusting much in Polyhex..." The old mech coughed, oil spilling and dripping over his lips.

"That should slow him down some." Big VolFogg walked over to Scavenger, crouching and indicating that the old mech should climb onto his back. "I can fly, and you can't. So climb aboard and hold on."

Scavenger smirked, "First time piggy-back ride..." Scavenger had weakly climbed onto his back, and held on tightly as they flew off, able to avoid the sightings of the Polyhex police force. "You gotta take me to Red... gah... bot knows more than I do..."

Big VolFogg engaged his Holographic Camouflage, keeping them from being seen as he leaped out into the air, igniting his thrusters and taking off. He made a beeline for Red Alert, contacting the others and telling them to get their skidplates to the clinic. He'd fill them in there.

Prime shook his head, "I told you, you were too old for this Scavenger..." the old mech himself glared at his former student as Red Alert was replacing a tread on his shoulder.

Megatron stood with his arms crossed, "Not surprised that Darius got away..." he grumbled, "He was one of the top bombers in the war..."

"He didn't get away intact," Big VolFogg pointed out. "I got him with the DaiKaiten Madan. No one walks away from that intact." He was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, watching the repairs.

Red Alert had finished replacing a few wirings, then closed the hatch of Scavenger's knee and allowed him to get up. "You should be good, but you're gonna need to stay off that knee for a few hours..." the medic received an irritated growl from the old bot.

Prime smirked, "Which means we have to head back to the ship, Primus knows that Darius has already left the planet..."

Big VolFogg made a thoughtful sound. "When next we encounter him, he will not be so quick to underestimate my capabilities. I am more than I appear."

Megatron looked up at the ninja bot, "And so are we..." he saw Prime help Scavenger from the table and supported him towards the door. When reaching the street, Megatron went in the opposite direction of Prime and Scavenger, "I'll be back later..." he waved them off, "have some business to attend to..." He transformed and headed for the uptown Polyhex area...

Big VolFogg followed Prime and Scavenger. "At least Scavenger has no reservations about flying... I've had a few passengers who screamed the whole time."


	13. Damn that redheaded female

Chapter 13 ~ "Damn that red-headed female"

Megatron flew over buildings, over parks and markets until he reached his destination: the Cybertronian Memorial park. He landed at the entrance, which was a torn arch that had seen the many battles of the planet. The ex-con leader entered the memorial, having already spotted a few names that he had known over the years. Upon arriving at his destination, he stopped and hid behind a large statue.

"It is most aggravating when one's passenger is screaming in one's audio all the time." Big VolFogg shook his head at the memory, then his thoughts turned to one person who had loved to fly with him. His engine let out a faint whir at the memory, and then he shook it away.

Megatron blinked, how is it that she is here? He peaked from behind the statue; he spotted a lone form standing in front of the memorial where he was going to see. That familiar red hair, the slender form, the pale skin... It was her. 'That little human that he loved so much...' Megatron thought, seeing her stand there with her head downcast, she was saying something...

Big VolFogg looked at the other two. Neither of them seemed to notice him. The combiner suddenly split into three again, two showing off slightly before settling down, covering the fact that the third had promptly disappeared. VolFogg went after Megatron, meaning to satisfy an itch of his own. There was something about Megatron and Prime that nagged at him, and he wanted to know what it was.

Alexis stood there in front of him... she didn't know why but she could feel him... watching her. She smiled sadly as the tears dripped down her face. She spoke to the grave for some strange reason knowing he could hear her wherever he might be. "You know, I still think it was a stupid thing what you did... but you saved us all you were a true hero Starscream... for what its worth... I still love you."

Megatron blinked, love? He watched her carefully, by Primus of all people why did she had to be here? He narrowed his optics suddenly diving down behind the stature again when his foot slid over the gravel, making the most irritating of noises and Alexis turned around. "Stupid foot...."he grumbled, "stupid stupid foot..."

VolFogg watched from where he lurked near the ceiling, perched in the shadows, under full Holographic Camouflage, and holding completely still. A human, here? His new wariness of unknown humans surged, and he watched carefully.

Alexis turned and spotted a mech she didn't know. "Are you ok sir?" She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. She eyed the mech; there was something about him... like she knew him... but she never seen him before.

Megatron snarled under his breath in frustration, he quickly jumped to his feet and gave his best impression of happy mech he could think of. "Top of the morning m'lady." Oh the WORSE impression ever, however his mask did help somewhat. "I'm just fine, but you seem a little upset yourself," Megatron approached the young girl, "What on cybertron are you doing here little girl?"

VolFogg suppressed a chuckle, settling back and watching the drama unfolding below. It was clear to him that Megatron knew this female, even if she didn't seem to recognize him. He was interested to see what would happen next.

Alexis raised an eyebrow at him. "Good morning to you kind sir. I'm just paying my respects to a old friend… and I'm not a little girl I am but by law a adult." She crossed her arms. Still fiery as ever but had manners.

Megatron gave a nervous laugh, "I can see..." he scratched his head, looking up to that cursed statue, "Visiting that seeker I see?" He mentally kicked himself, why are you making conversation???

Up near the ceiling, VolFogg moved to a new perch, never taking his optics off the pair below. Megatron was uncomfortable, that was clearly obvious to the ninja mech.

She looked him up and down for a moment. Then something brighten in her eyes, a smile grew on her face, "A mask? That's the best you can do… I thought it looked like Optimus'." She grinned wider and his red optics grew wide. She could tell he was about to ask how she knew and cut him off with, "Women's intuition, plus I recognized your voice."

"Frick..." he cursed, "Double frick..." Megatron grumbled and removed his mask, "Bloody hell human..." he growled, "All that work for nothing..." He watched the grin on her face grow and he crossed his arms, he huffed, "How the hell did you get here anyway? And what was that earlier I heard you saying to... him?"

VolFogg snorted to himself, making himself comfortable on his perch. His gaze never left the pair below, interested in finding out how the two knew each other.

Alexis just smiled. "On the magic pony express; how do you think I got here?" She giggled but then grew serious, "Well... I feel embarrassed to say this but... me and Starscream... well we were just a bit more then friends..." She blushed and toed the ground.

Megatron blinked down at the human, "You mean... You and..." his optics grew wide, "How the bloody hell that is possible I will never know..." Megatron rubbed his face, and then looked back at the statue, his face frowned and his optics narrowed. Why did he have to die...?

Up above, VolFogg blinked rapidly for a moment at the implications. This human woman had been in love with a mech? For a moment his thoughts returned to his own chocolate-haired companion, and a sense of loss swept through him. It took him a moment to shake it off and return his attention to what was going on below.

"He left me a holo-vid… in my email... I watched it for days after he was gone. He told me he did it for peace of Cybertron, and earth... and for me." She wiped away a tear from her eye and sniffled. "he was so gentle… and he knew just what to say and when to say it; Oh I loved him..."

Megatron's mouth was in a low and deep frown, his red optics had saddened, "Well... I guess he DID deserve something in this world before he died..." He walked up to the statue, looking at that stone-cold face. The seeker's statue was in a posture where he was holding his sword, blade first into the ground. It was a real honor to have his actual blade placed in the statue... Megatron smirked and sat down on the ground.

VolFogg looked at the statue, wondering who it was of and what he had done before he had died, then looked back to Megatron.

Alexis sat down next to him. "He was the sweetest person I had ever met. Though he did put on a the tough guy act... it was cute and he always got that little frown when I popped his bubble." She giggled, "He would sulk after I poked a few holes in his ego but for some reason he liked it and kept coming back for more. Till I confronted him on it, I have never seen someone turn so red in the face."

Megatron smirked once, then place it back into a frown, "Starscream was..." he sighed, he couldn't really think of anything to say. His very death was practically his fault, "He was a good soldier... heh I applaud all those times he would scheme to overthrow my control of the empire." Megatron remembered those last few words of the seeker, "He deserved my respect... and yet I didn't..."

At that, VolFogg perked up, optics narrowing slightly. Control of an empire... so his instincts had been right. Megatron had been someone with a great deal of power before becoming a bounty hunter.

"Well from the stories he told me of what you were like. I'm not surprised he tried," Alexis said.

Megatron blinked his downcast optics, "I was on the verge of conquering the known universe with methods that could cause my downfall or my defeat, and he would give better suggestions on what to do..." He closed his optics and opened them again, looking up at the statue, "And what would I do? Smack it right back in his face..." Megatron narrowed his optics, "Damn you Starscream..."

VolFogg digested that. Megatron had apparently been on a mission of conquest, but something had clearly happened to change the direction of his life. And it had to do with this deceased mech.

"Well you were a evil, crazed son of a-"

"I know I know..."

She smiled and him and patted his hand, "I'm sure if Starscream saw you now he would be very proud... I know I am." She smiled and leaned against his hand completely trusting him.

Megatron's lips didnt move, however he did appreciate the gesture. He sighed and looked back down at the human girl, "You should be going, its getting late and Polyhex is the last place you want to be at night my dear..." Megatron didnt move from the spot however, "I'm sure you have a ride?" he said and stared down at the girl closer, "AND a agreement not to tell anyone that I'm still... alive?"

VolFogg shifted on his perch, moving back toward where he'd come in. He paused to watch the last of what was happening below before leaving.

"I have been living here for the past two months. I'm a special agent of the Autobots. I'll be fine." Alexis smiled up to the former Decepticon Emperor, "And no I won't tell anyone. Just tell Optimus, I said Hi and I miss him." She patted his hand before getting up and heading out of the cemetery.

Megatron watched her go, waiting for the moment when she was out of sight before he stood up. He breathed, closing his optics once more and opening them again, "I know you're there boy..." he turned around to spot the smaller ninja bot.

VolFogg shimmered into view on the high ceiling beam. He didn't say anything, though; merely stayed where he was and watched the larger mech. His pink-red optics were neutral.

Megatron smiled, "Thought I wouldn't notice you?" an optic ridge raised, but he turned around quickly as the lights turned on around the memorial. Megatron's shoulders slacked slowly when seeing the description on the plaque and he sighed, putting his mask on. "Always wanted to shine..." he mumbled, "And now he's got his chance..." he smirked under his mask and stood up straight, saluting the seeker

"Most don't." VolFogg dropped from his perch, landing a crouch before straightening back to his full height. He looked at Megatron for a moment, then at the statue. "Who was he?"

Megatron smirked, "He was my second-in-command during the war, the Air Commander of the Decepticon Air Force..." he looked up to the statue once more, then turning around and walking towards the exit, "That is until my own actions led to his betrayal... and his sacrifice to bring peace to this planet..."

VolFogg made a thoughtful sound. "And it was that experience that made you change the path you were walking, I take it." He looked at the statue once more, and then followed Megatron out, activating his Ul-Tech thrusters and taking to the air.

Megatron smirked, "Something like that..." he transformed into his jet-place vehicle mode and headed back for the Guardian.


	14. Nighttime

Chapter 14 ~ "Nighttime"

Once walking through the door, Megatron heard the sounds of pain-filled screams and ran down the corridor. He knew where they were coming from and soon found himself looking over Prime cradling a shuttering RaiRyu; Prime looked up at him, "He's having flashbacks..."

VolFogg appeared beside the yellow mech, reaching out to take RaiRyu's hand and holding it tightly. He murmured softly to the larger mech, trying to help calm the dragon of lightning down.

Prime was grateful, as was FuuRyu when RaiRyu's sobs had died down and the yellow bot looked up to the three bots. He blinked tiredly and curled up into Prime's lap, "They won't stop... I can still see him... feel him..." His body shuttered and Prime placed a hand on RaiRyu's shoulder, his golden optics saddened, "I know..."

The purple mech hugged RaiRyu as best he could. "Only time and your own strength, plus the strength of those who are here to help you, can overcome the nightmares, Rai. He is going to regret doing this to you, I promise you that."

Optimus listened to what VolFogg said. He mulled over it then looked at RaiRyu... he reminded him of another little yellow bot that had an attitude much like VolFogg's. He would do anything to avenge a friend... or brother. He looked at Sideswipe as he played with the GunMachines. The little ones were so young and didn't deserve this misery. Most of then were infants and one youngling.

Megatron had smiled over his mask, noting that fatherly look in Prime's optic, 'Typical Prime...' he thought, leaning against the doorframe. He suddenly became aware of a presence behind him, he blinked and turned around finding HyoRyu and EnRyu trying to peek inside.

"How's Rai...?" En's voice held that of concern, his blue brother nodded in agreement wanting to know the answer.

"Having flashbacks, bad ones." VolFogg didn't look up from the yellow mech, rubbing the younger mech's back gently. "This is just my opinion, but I don't think he should be left alone... no offense, FuuRyu. The more people he knows and trusts, the better, I think."

Optimus nodded in agreement with VolFogg. "I'll stay with him tonight." He looked back down to the smaller yellow bot, which seemed to flash him a familiar grin.

EnRyu grinned and laughed as HyoRyu rolled his optics, "Even when put through complete hell he's still somewhat able to be himself..."

Megatron smirked under his mask, seeing FuuRyu wrap an arm around his brother's shoulder and hug him close. The former Decepticon warlord blinked, having noticed that Scavenger wasn't around.

VolFogg smiled, still stroking RaiRyu's back. "That's a good sign... it means he hasn't been broken. He can recover, in time. With help and support." He nodded to Prime, then slowly pulled away. "I'm heading back to my room... I need some recharge."

Prime nodded to VolFogg, and held RaiRyu closer. The little yellow mech snuggled into his chest and let a smile spread across his face... this felt safe... warm... like when Fuu and him curled up at night, but much more stronger. He pulled Fuu on to Prime's lap and made him snuggle the way he did. He saw the look on his big brother's face realizing why RaiRyu was clinging… this felt good.

Optimus was a bit surprised by the brother's actions, his golden optics blinking. Yet he couldn't help but smile, his powerful arms embracing them both.

Megatron smiled for a moment at the pair, suddenly stopping VolFogg by the shoulder, "You mind finding Scavenger?" he asked, "Didn't see him when I came on board..." Megatron's red optics narrowed, "He better not be guzzling down the high grade... that's MY high grade!"

VolFogg looked up at the larger mech, and then nodded. Once Megatron let go of his shoulder, the ninja mech went in search of Scavenger, checking in a few other spots before entering the common room.

Scavenger stumbled out on the floor; his steps were uneven as he made his way to couch. He stumbled again, this time tripping over the small table that sat in front of the couch and he landed on his knees, luckily he didn't spill his bottle of high grade. He cursed as he got up, his old face was red from the warmth of the drink and he snorted while trying to make it to the comfy couch.

VolFogg blinked several times. "There he is..." He walked over to the old mech, wondering just why Scavenger had gotten so drunk.

Scavenger sat on the couch; plopping down and making it move a few centimeters. He took a swig at the large bottle of high grade, letting out a breath followed by a hiccup; he growled and rubbed his sore knee, "Damn the joints...."

VolFogg looked at him, puzzled. "So this is where you disappeared to." He edged closer, not sure what kind of drunk Scavenger was. He'd seen all types on Earth; there were times being a police car had its downsides.

Scavenger hiccupped and looked towards the smaller bot, "III... didn't disappear..." he took another swig, "I've always *hic* been here..." Scavenger's face turned into a smirk, "Over... 100 million years..." he suddenly frowned, "100 million years and... *hic* I'm still here... Why the hell am I...?"

VolFogg eased closer. "Age-related depression..." It wasn't something he had a lot of experience with. Of all the people he'd known, most were relatively young, and the oldest person he knew, the chief scientist of GGG, had disregarded his age.

Scavenger blinked his yellow optics, looking over at the ninja bot, "What are... you *hic* doing here anyway...?" he took a much smaller sip of his high grade this time.

"Megatron asked me to find you." The purple mech stopped next to the couch, frowning at the bottle. "Somehow I doubt you'll find the answer to your problems in that bottle..."

Scavenger grinned, chuckling, "When you've witnessed countless friends *hic* and family die... before your eyes..." he tried to sit up on the couch, "You really... got nothing else to do..." He took another drink at the bottle, finishing the last of it, "I've watched them die, I've watched enemies dies at my... *hic* hand... and why haven't I died?" Scavenger grinned again, giggling, "Simple..."

"Because it's not your time," the purple mech said thoughtfully. "What does an elder have that no one else does? Experience, knowledge, and skills to be passed on to the younger generations; memories of important events, to record and keep for future generations. Have you ever thought of that?"

"Countless times kid..." the old mech breathed, "But when you watch your own knowledge being wasted on a soldier dying in your own arms... you really... gotta rethink things over..." Scavenger growled, "My old age is getting to me..." He was somehow able to sober up. "Today with Darius... I couldn't move like I use to, fight like I use to..."

"Then leave the fighting to the younger generation, and concentrate on passing on what you know. Train the younger mechs. Perhaps the skills you have, that you learned throughout your life, could help save other lives." VolFogg touched his shoulder gently. "My team and I are strong, but even we still have much to learn. Teach us."

Scavenger blinked, looking up at the smaller mech with a stern expression in his yellow optics. He saw the determination in VolFogg's optics, trust, and honor; something that's hard to come by these days... Scavenger sighed then smirked, rubbing his temple, "I can't believe... *hic* I'm doing this..." he stood up, his legs a bit unbalanced, "All righty ninja bot, you got yourself a mentor..." He staggered towards the kitchen.

VolFogg smiled. "Thank you, Scavenger. You might find us more attentive than some other students you've had... We have a lot to learn and we know it." He watched the old mech head for the kitchen, a frown crossing his face. "You don't need any more of that stuff..."

Scavenger grinned, "Yooouuuu may think so..." he chuckled, pulling out a can of low-priced high grade and tossed another one at Vol, "But III beeg *hic* to differ..." he opened the can and headed back for the couch. "Plluuus... the EIGHT of you are gonna have to get used to me..."

VolFogg caught the can, looking at it dubiously. He had seen the effect it had on his teammates, and had no desire to get that overcharged. The strongest stuff he'd ever had was some high-octane fuel EnRyu had managed to slip him, and he wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

Scavenger grinned, "You mention your team... *hic* as the three of you..." He drank a sip of the can. "First rule of Cybertronian warfare: Bigger team *hic* bigger force..." he chuckled, "Heh... I remember back in the day... I trained an Autobot army by the thousand..." He slumped in the couch, putting the can on the small table. He swayed back and forth, laying against the soft fabric.

"The twins and I are a small team inside a larger team," VolFogg explained, holding his own can. "The Ryu brothers, the dragons of fire and ice, wind and thunder... they are the Mobile Unit, the real fighters. GunDober, GunGlue, and I were meant as spies, more or less. To gather intelligence, we made the transition to fighter when I was assigned to protect someone..." His optics dimmed as he thought of his young charge, then shook himself. "We worked with the Ryu brothers a great deal, though we were still Intelligence Division."

Scavenger looked up at VolFogg, "And what about Mic?" he said with a straight face, "He deeessseerrves... *hic* to be part of this as well..." he yawned loudly, canines baring. "Damn... the room is spinning..." Scavenger's body swayed back and forth once more as his optics flashed...

"Mic is different yet again; he has different abilities. His weapon, believe it or not, is a keytar and that funny-looking ship of his. He's a sound robot. Since he was built by someone else, I'm not sure which division he falls into." VolFogg thought for a moment, and then dismissed the thought with a shrug. "And I do believe you've had enough to drink."

Scavenger smirked, optics dimming, "Sound huh? ...Sounds like SoundWave..." he leaned forward suddenly, feeling his stomach twist and growl...

Finding an empty container, VolFogg slid it discreetly over to the old mech; he'd had plenty of experience with drunks. "That name doesn't ring any bells. Mic attacks with targeted sound waves. He has special disks that produce different effects, from microwave blasts to shut down mecha functions, to energy waves that power up the GS-Rides, our power source. With a properly-calibrated wave, he can shatter pretty much anything in his way."

Scavenger had vomited the contents of his stomach, heaving energon from the night before. He wiped his mouth when he finished, "Fuuck..." he muttered, lying back on the couch. His optics were dimming, "Heh, Primus knows that Optimus is gonna give me an ass load of lectures..." he slumped to the side, laying on the couch while still looking up at the ceiling.

"You probably deserve it, for getting this messily overcharged," VolFogg commented under his breath, curling up in a chair. He watched the older mech, pink-red optics calm.

"heh.... maybe..." He looked over at VolFogg, the old mech's face was somewhat blushed from the effects of the highgrade. He smirked, "Hey kid... promise me something..."

VolFogg tilted his head. "What would that be?"

Scavenger took a breath, "Promise me... that you won't end up dead like the others... those kids that thought they could take it but just ended up dead due to their own overconfidence..." The old mech blinked his optics, "'Cause I really don't feel like carrying your dead ass home..." Scavenger grinned.

VolFogg chuckled. "I know better than to bite off more than I can chew, as do the others. We have been in more than a few battles already, and we're still here. None of us has any intention of dying anytime soon. That promise I can make. "

Scavenger nodded, "Good..." he yawned once more, "That's good..." And with one more long breath, the old mech slipped into a long awaited recharge...

The ninja mech watched the old mech slip into recharge, and then discovered, to his amusement, that yawning actually was contagious. Putting the unopened can of high-grade aside, he adjusted his position in the chair, put his head down, and was out like a light almost instantly.


	15. Get ready for launch!

Chapter 15 ~ "Get ready for launch!"

The next morning, Sideswipe had trudged tiredly into the kitchen and grabbed a can of regular-grade energon and soft flux bar. When making his way over to the couch he spotted a sight to see, and smirked, "Well I'll be damned..." he tiptoed over to the ninja bot, who was curled up in the chair next to the couch where Scavenger was lying down with his head on the armrest. He shook VolFogg lightly, "Hey Vol? Wake up dude..."

VolFogg stirred, taking his time about it. Raising his head, he yawned, stretching like an auto-lion, then blinked up at Sideswipe. For once he wasn't on a hair trigger upon awakening.

Sideswipe blinked, shaking him a little harder, "Hey! Come on wake up!" he tapped him on the head, "We're raising the ship today so get your butt in gear and wake up the old crockbot would ya?"

VolFogg aimed a half-hearted, lazy kick in the other mech's direction. "I am awake... damn you morning people." Sitting up, he stretched like a cat, yawning again. After a moment, he flowed off the chair and onto his feet, walking over to the couch.

Scavenger was snoring... as usual like a chainsaw. He grumbled in his sleep, his snoring somehow rousing Prime and the other bots as he walked in with RaiRyu by his side and FuuRyu next to the yellow bot; Megatron had entered, obviously ticked off about something. He spotted the bottle and cans of high grade, "Damnit he drank my high grade!"

"He was already well gone when I found him," VolFogg commented, regarding the old mech. Reaching out, he shook Scavenger's shoulder. "Don't make me borrow some charge from Rai..."

Scavenger grumbled and turned onto his side, back turned towards the purple bot. Megatron chuckled, "That's not how you wake him..." The former con leader walked over casually and stood directly over the older mech. With a thoughtful smirk and a raise of his fist, he brought it down HARD onto Scavenger's head and the older mech gave a loud roar. Megatron smirked, "THAT'S how you wake him up."

VolFogg jumped out of the way. If he could have rolled his eyes, he would have. Walking over to RaiRyu, he managed to tease a small electrical charge out of the dragon of lightning's systems, allowing the charge to jump from finger to finger, forming a ring. "This usually works, too... It gets through to Goldymarg, anyway."

Scavenger growled, jumping to his feet and throwing a fist to Megatron's face, sending the con flying across the room and onto the opposite couch. Prime rolled his optics, placing a hand on RaiRyu's shoulder, "Can we get these boys strapped in? I would like to head out for the next bounty head on the list please..." He watched as Scavenger walked to the kitchen and brew up some hot energon.

VolFogg flicked the borrowed charge back to RaiRyu, who absorbed it without looking up. "The twins are probably still asleep... and I haven't heard a peep from Goldy at all." He went to check on the others and help prepare them for takeoff.

Megatron staggered to his feet, ridding his head of the dizziness, "Bah... bloody hell Scavenger..." he quickly grabbed a can of regular energon and headed for the Pilot's deck. Prime just shook his head and guided RaiRyu to the couch, sitting him down with FuuRyu next to him and strapping them in. He tightened the buckle, "All right, you both get ready, this is gonna one hell of a ride..."

VolFogg got EnRyu and HyoRyu strapped in, checking on Mic and the massive orange form of Goldymarg before joining GunDober and GunGlue. The ninja team settled in for the launch. "We're ready."

Prime nodded, having helped a still very cranky Scavenger onto the pilot's deck and getting him into his seat of control. SideSwipe was settling next to him in the tech support chair, bringing up the instructions by the control tower and hearing them over the comn giving the okay, "All right guys we got the green light..." he tapped at the holo-screen. Prime had sat him self in the Pilot's chair,

"Ready..." he held onto the controls on the ship, pushing the red button initiating the launch sequence as Megatron activated the engines and spare boosters. "Initiating launch in 5..." Megatron tapped at the screen, "4....3..." Sideswipe was preparing the tech control as Scavenger was get the coolant systems ready, "2...1...Launch!" And without a moments notice, the ship blasted off in space.

VolFogg and the others rode it out, GunDober actually letting out a whistle of excitement. They'd never been through a launch like that; the GGG ships they were used to launched more gradually and a lot more gently.

The ship had made it past Cybertron's moons before Sideswipe began the next system, "Get ready for warp jump..." he tapped in the coordinates, "Hang on to your butts guys, we're heading for the Polar solstice planet..." With that he tuned in on the signal and began the warp jump, the ship itself went into hyper drive as the warp gate opened and allowed the ship to enter.

VolFogg tilted his head as he heard a familiar groan. "About time you woke up, you big lump." The response was a grumble that sounded like "shove it up your exhaust, bolt-brain." The ninja mech only snorted in response.

It wasn't long until the ship had warped itself to its destination, slowing down from hyper speed to a slow drift when coming upon a light blue and white planet. Prime set the ship on Auto-pilot to land on the planet, then headed down for the common room. He went into the large closet and pulled out a pile of what looked to be large thermo-cloaks, "All right boys, bundle up.."

VolFogg took one, wrapping it around himself. GunDober took one, then looked at his twin. GunGlue twitched his rotors, shrugging. "Do you have one in 'helicopter'?" VolFogg asked no one in particular. "And then there's that big lump..." He indicated the massive orange robot who had just stepped out of another room. The orange robot glared at him in response.

Prime chuckled, handed him one in extra large, then grabbing one and handing it to RaiRyu, FuuRyu helped him patch it on. "You all need to be careful while we're on this planet, the bounty head we're looking for is part organic and has a taste for oil and cold temperatures. The cold on this planet is basically twice as cold as the arctic on Earth, so make sure that the cloaks are on ALL THE TIME."

"We can operate comfortably in space, and space is a helluva lot colder than any planet!" the huge orange robot shot back. VolFogg regarded him for a moment, then pulled out his slingshot again, bouncing another bolt off an orange helm. "Cool it, hammer-head."

Megatron just shook his head, having given EnRyu and HyoRyu their thermo-cloaks; "Swipes and Mic are going to stay on the ship with Scavenger..." He looked back at the old mech, "He's still suffering from one bitch of a hangover..." They all looked back at the old mech who was sitting face-down at the table.

Prime nodded, "Right then, that means I have watch over the ninja bots..."

GunGlue chirped loudly, looking at the cloaks, then at his rotors. Volfogg smiled slightly. "Once Goldymarg here gets that though his helm, we might have some transportation... one of his alts is a tank that can pretty much drive through, over, and up anything in the way. Too bad GaoGaiGar isn't here... the Goldion Hammer is useless without him..."

Megatron blinked, shaking his head, "I'm not even going to ask..." He grabbed GoldyMarg by the shoulder and had EnRyu and HyoRyu follow him, "I have first take off with the bots! DO try and catch up Prime..." In an instant, Megatron was flying through the air with HyoRyu and EnRyu riding him upon his back him clutching GoldyMarg. They landed in the heap of cold snow and ice.

"That's Goldymarg for you," VolFogg commented with a shrug. "I'd be careful with that bugger... his A.I. was based off GGG's tactical planner, so Goldy is quite stubborn and hot-headed." He helped cover GunGlue's rotors, wrapping another cloak around the heli-mech's shoulders.

Prime had gotten RaiRyu and FuuRyu all set up, looking back at the ninja bots, "We're gonna have to keep an eye on everyone..." He tightened his own cloak, "Its a miracle that RaiRyu was able to talk me in to letting him come with us..." He looked down at the yellow bot who was grinning sheepishly, "I wanted to see some... kind of action..."

"Never separate twins," was VolFogg's response. "Especially when they are a combiner. The twin dragons of wind and thunder are formidable on their own... wait till you see GekiRyuJin." He adjusted his cloak, making sure he'd be able to reach his boomerangs if he needed them.

Prime smirked and shrugged, feeling that the ship had landed. "Okay boys..." Prime cracked his knuckles, "Time for some hunting..." he headed out the door with FuuRyu and RaiRyu in tow. He opened the hatch to the outside and slid down the ladder to the outside, he shivered when feeling the cold snow beneath his feet. Prime looked around, feeling the twins land next to him, "At least it clear out."

"They can fly, you know," VolFogg called down as he and his team descended. "Rai just can't land worth a damn. Neither can En, for that matter..." The purple mech didn't seem the least bit bothered by the snow.

Prime had pulled out his blaster, turning off the safety, "Good to keep a low profile..." he headed out to the cold wasteland, "The bounty head we're looking for is a professional at camouflage and guerilla warfare..." Prime made sure that RaiRyu was close by, leading the team towards the designated area where the bounty head was supposed to be located, "Plus you don't want to fly in this weather."

The ninja team settled into a quick, ground-eating wolf-trot, following the larger mechs. They seemed to almost glide over the snow, making as little noise as possible.

Meanwhile, Megatron was having trouble controlling two of the Yuusha Bots, EnRyu and GoldyMarg seemed to have started a spat and he and HyoRyu were getting fed up with it.

EnRyu growled, "You stupid orange fat ass! You tripped me on purpose!" he was pointing his finger into Goldy's face.

"I did not!" Goldymarg shot back. "You're just a klutz!" He swatted at EnRyu's hand.

EnRyu growled once more, "Say that again I'll frickin kick your fat ass!"

HyoRyu groaned and rubbed his face, Megatron was on the verge of killing them both...

"You couldn't beat me if I had both hands and one leg tied down!" Goldymarg sniped, looking down at the red mech.

EnRyu growled, optics flaring as he tackled the orange bot and wrestled him to the ground. Megatron had jumped, "No no no no no!" he was running over to the two mechs when they had suddenly wrestled over a ledge of snow and were sliding down to a freezing green sea below. "IDIOTS!!" Megatron went after them as HyoRyu followed, "You bloody bastards are going to give us away!"

"He started it." Goldymarg pointed at the red mech. "This is actually normal for them," Volfogg commented to Megatron over a private commline. "Goldy is incredibly stubborn. You need to impress upon him the need for stealth, and he should calm down enough to keep on a leash."

Megatron growled, having slid down to the ice where EnRyu and Goldymarg had stopped, "Screw that I'd rather do it the old fashion way..." the former Con warlord cracked his knuckles.

HyoRyu had landed next to Megatron, watching as the Con was on his way over to pretty much pound the circuits out of the mechs when he suddenly noticed something: they were over water. His optics widened, "Sir! Wait!"

Goldymarg paused, looking over at HyoRyu. Though he and EnRyu were always sniping at each other, he had some respect for the blue twin. He followed HyoRyu's gaze, noting the water under the ice. "Oh shit..."

VolFogg had a laugh in his voice as he spoke again. "Or you could sic Hyo on him... and Goldy swims about as well as a ten-ton boulder."

Megatron stopped cold in his tracks, "Bloody hell boy..." he looked around at the water, then back at EnRyu, "Listen here, you're going to have to be careful and cross slowly. This isn't like the water you know from Earth..." He watched as EnRyu took tiny steps towards him, Megatron was keeping his position still, "If you fall into the water, you won't be able to breathe because it'll freeze you too quickly..."

Goldymarg eased across the ice as carefully as he could, until he was well away from the water. He stared down at the water for a long moment, and then looked at HyoRyu.

HyoRyu was transfixed on his brother, praying that his twin would be safe; Megatron had reached out his hand, having crawled to his knees to try and get EnRyu. EnRyu himself was so close to safety, a few more steps and he was free. "Almost boy..." Megatron breathed, "...almost..." when it looked like the bot was going to get out of it, a sudden blast to the ice stopped them, cracking the ice and sending EnRyu into the water. Megatron cursed and looked up, spotting a scouter drone floating in the air; he growled, "Take care of the drone!" he ordered and dove into the water, watching EnRyu descend into the water's darkness. Megatron had to activate his boosters in order to reach the red bot and fly back to the surface while feeling the ice freeze his limbs.

Goldymarg changed to his tank mode, using his cannon to blow the drone out of the air. VolFogg contacted Megatron as soon as the ex-Con was out of the water. "Turn the dial on EnRyu's chest up to four and open the chest plate just slightly. EnRyu is the dragon of fire, so he runs hot."

Megatron growled, having heard Vol's voice but the cold was making the connection weak, "C-caant...h-heear you..." he shivered, crawling onto the surface with EnRyu in his grasp. However luck just didn't seem to be on their side today; as he crawled Megatron and Enryu's added weight began to crack the ice further.

Goldymarg looked at the two as they crawled up onto the ice, then at the blue mech next to him. Growling, he lifted HyoRyu off the ground, grabbing hold of the crane on his back. Ignoring HyoRyu's yelp of surprise, he grabbed the hook and unwound the tow cable. One he had enough; he swung the hook overhead before casting at Megatron and EnRyu. It took a couple of tries before it got a solid hold on them. "Now reel it in!" the orange mech snapped at the startled ice dragon, beginning to climb back up the slope onto firm ground.

HyoRyu didn't hesitate and began reeling them back onto the cold, solid ground. Megatron was shivering, his frame clattering against an equally shivering EnRyu, "C-co...olld..." the smaller red bot said. Megatron held onto him tightly, "Hang on now boy..." he shivered once more, "W-were alm-most there..." he could feel his systems beginning to freeze up.

Goldymarg quickly dragged them the rest of the way, well clear of the water. Then he finally put HyoRyu down, hurrying over to EnRyu and turning his chest dial up to four. As soon as he cracked the red mech's chestplate open, a burst of red-hot flame flashed out of the seam, beginning to thaw out the two mechs.

Megatron was sighing with relief, feeling the warmth. Oh the nice and hot feeling...Megatron rolled over onto his back, his cloak was soaked and so was EnRyu's, "What a bounty hunt this turned out to be..." he grumbled, still shivering somewhat.

"There are advantages to having the dragon of fire around," Goldymarg observed. "Especially if you need a heat source. His Chest Warmer does come in handy now and then."

"Why the bloody hell do you keep calling him 'dragon'?" Megatron shook as he sat up, tearing off his cloak, "He's a mech not a bloody mythical Earth creature..." He crawled over and tore off EnRyu's cloak, throwing them both aside, "These are completely useless now..." the con growled, "I'm gonna have to go back to th-theeee..." Megatron wrinkled his nose then sneezed, sniffling afterwards.

"His name means 'fire dragon'," Goldymarg answered. "Like HyoRyu's means 'ice dragon'. EnRyu's attacks are based around fire and high temperatures; Melting Gun, Melting Rifle, Chest Warmer... that last is a really big flamethrower under his chestplate. And HyoRyu's are based around low temperatures." The orange mech puffed up. "Not that they can hold a candle to me, that is..."

Over the open commline, VolFogg snorted.

Megatron blinked, sniffling again, "That may be..." He stood up and brought EnRyu, who was still trying to get his head back together, up upon his back, "But I still need to head back to the ship..."

He heard a cough and looked back at EnRyu who groaned, "Why is it that the back of my mouth hurts?" he asked tiredly.

Megatron chuckled. "Being a Cybertronian now, you're body is going to go through different bodily functions, that includes getting sick when something like...this happens..." Megatron himself coughed and sniffled, "Bloody hell, flying back is going to be an ass..."

"I did say Goldymarg turns into a tank," VolFogg reminded them casually. "I think he's subdued enough to give you a ride with a minimum of complaint."

Megatron nodded over his comn, looking over to the orange bot. "All right I'll take your word for it ninja boy..." Megatron walked over to GoldyMarg, "Transform before we freeze again..." he looked back at EnRyu, "the boy looks like he'll shut down if we don't get back..."

HyoRyu was as their side immediately, "I'm going too, where EnRyu goes I go..."

Megatron nodded, "All right..."

"System Change!" Goldymarg turned into a massive orange tank, the hammer on the back of his robot mode now on top of his tank form, with the handle serving as a massive cannon. "Get on, and let's get moving! Keep EnRyu's chestplate open a slight bit so the heat can get out... he runs hot anyway, but even hotter when that dial is turned up like that."

Megatron nodded, hopping on as did HyoRyu and then GoldyMarg sped off back towards the ship.


	16. Systems upgrade

Chapter 16 ~ "Systems upgrade"

Upon returning to the ship, Megatron and EnRyu had to make a little visit to the Medical bay for a systems check up to make sure there was no freeze-damage. Meanwhile HyoRyu was helping Sideswipe make a Cybertronian style Ramen soup for the two mechs while Goldy sat on the couch and watched TV.

The massive orange mech took up most of the couch due to the sheer width of his shoulders and the massive hammer he carried. The remote looked small in his huge orange-and-grey hand as he flipped channels, looking for something interesting. Then he tilted his head as he heard the telltale sounds of someone returning.

There was the sound of shuffling, suddenly the door swished open and a blue and white, organic looking mech was tossed to the floor, completely hog-tied. Prime pointed a finger to the air, planting a foot on the bounty head's back, "WE HAVE..." he said in a heroic voice, "DEFEATED THE DARING VILLAN!" SideSwipe and HyoRyu just looked at him, SideSwipe suddenly smacking his forehead.

VolFogg and the twins seemed to materialize out of nowhere, walking past Prime. "Just don't go forgetting who cornered the bugger," the purple mech commented as he removed his cloak.

Prime's form slumped, and grumbled, "Yeah yeah..." he grinned, pointing a thumb to the mechs, "These guys are talented fighters, need some more techniques though but otherwise did a great job pwning the guy." RaiRyu and FuuRyu smiled, the green twin removing his and his brother's cloak; Prime then allowed them to settle on the couch then slipping into the kitchen after smelling something.

VolFogg watched, then looked at the hog-tied mech. "To the brig with this one?" GunDober and GunGlue pulled off their own cloaks, their body language giving the distinct impression of audial-to-audial grins despite not having visible facial features.

Prime waved them off, "Yeah, it's at the lowest level of the ship..." he smelled something good, "Stay to right!" He slipped passed HyoRyu and looked over Sideswipe's shoulder, the blue mech was stirring a pot of Cybertronian style Ramen. The noodles were green with an aqua-blue liquid sauce, pieces of energon cubes here and there, Prime's optics lit up, "Dinner?" he asked.

The ninja mech suddenly launched a large jet-propelled handcuff, latching onto the squirming prey and literally dragging the captive away. The GunMachine twins both snickered at the sight, then turned as they too caught the scent. GunDober made a mournful sound, reaching up to touch his facemask.

Scavenger had walked in on GunDober's voice and the smell; Megatron and EnRyu were behind him, heavily covered in thick Thermo blankets. Scavenger smiled, placing a hand on GunDober's head and patting it, "Don't worry kid," he said assuringly, "I have a way for you two to eat this new stuff..." The old mech smiled, nodding over to the mechs behind him and they both sat down on the couch.

GunDober looked at the old mech, tilting his head and making a curious chirrup. Wondering just what Scavenger had in mind. They exchanged glances, and GunGlue just shrugged. A few minutes later, Volfogg reappeared, handcuff once again hidden.

Scavenger chuckled at the smaller mech, "Yup..." he tapped at the bot's chest, "You two have a spark now, which means your upgrades are quick, easy, and painless..." He looked up after hearing a loud growl from Sideswipe who was trying to keep Prime away from the not-so-ready-yet dinner. He rolled his optics and shook his head, "Anyway, if you two would come with me, I just got a little package from Red Alert to help with the codes for molding your faces together."

Both of the Gun Robots perked up at that. Volfogg watched with a smile as they trotted after the old mech. Settling into a chair, the purple mech watched Sideswipe fending Prime off with the large metal spoon he was holding.

Scavenger chuckled once more, leading the two bots to the medical bay and asking them to sit on the two tables. After they did as they were instructed, Scavenger went over to GunDober first, feeling around his chest until he found what he was looking for. With a soft click, GunDober's chest opened, metal plates moves and wires spun into place as a shining blue light emanated from his chest.

GunDober peered down into his chest cavity, letting out a sound of amazement as he stared at the blue light. GunGlue came over to see for himself, his optic shield reflecting the blue light. Looking up at Scavenger, he asked what that light was.

"That, my young friend, is your spark, the very thing that is keeping you alive now..." Scavenger said thoughtfully, opening up GunGlue's chest, "And forever giving you independence..." The old mech then took a few tubes and wires, connecting them to each of the twin's spark. He went back behind a control panel, inserting a tiny disk and typed his fingers away at the holo-screen.

The GunMachine twins watched curiously, refraining from moving around too much. Their hidden optics followed every move the old mech made, wondering just what was going to happen.

Scavenger smiled, "All right you two, get ready..." he tapped at the screen, the system asking whether to begin or not, "You guys are gonna feel a little buzz in your heads, but it'll be quick..." With that, he tapped the "Start" option and the wires and tubes lit up with energy, sparks flew and entered into the twin's chest. The holo-screen was counting the seconds till completion, "30 SECONDS."

GunGlue twitched slightly, making a whirring sound. It felt distinctly odd, like an internal itch. GunDober shifted, making a hissing noise as he waited for the feeling to stop.

Scavenger was watching as their bodies both lit up, the system was counting down, "3...2...1...UPGRADE COMPLETE." And with that the charge dwindled and disappeared, Scavenger went over and disconnected the tubes and wires, closing their chest cavities. "How do you both feel? Any changes?" he asked worriedly

The tiger-helmed twin was the first to sit up, rubbing his helm and letting out a purring noise to indicate that he felt fine. GunGlue nodded his agreement, watching as his chest armor was replaced, then looking up at Scavenger, chirping out a question. _::What just happened?::_

Scavenger grinned, "Try removing your mask and you'll find out..."

The hawk-helmed mech stared at the old mech, then reached up to touch the familiar facemask and optic shield. Slowly, he unfastened the plates and pulled them away, turning toward his twin. Who stared at him, hidden jaw audibly hitting the bottom of his own mask.

Scavenger laughed, looking at the bot's very young face, "Congratulations boys, you now have faces...." the old mech smiled, "...and a whole pot of food to add to that."

Interestingly enough, GunGlue's features had a vaguely avian appearance, following the design of his helm and body. GunDober stared for a long moment, then removed his own mask, revealing his own features. His were more feline, to the extent that the focusing cameras behind his optic shields narrowed to slits instead of circles.

Scavenger just shook his head with a chuckle, "Come on you two, let's get something eat since you both haven't had the right amount of energon yet..." the old mech walked out the door.

Both scrambled to follow, chattering excitedly. They darted past him, dashing down the corridor, eager to show the others the changes, and get some of the food that smelled so good.

Scavenger couldn't help but laugh as they ran by. He would teach them how to speak like the rest of them but not yet. First they had to learn how their mouths worked... and hopefully when they do learn to speak they don't get themselves into trouble with their mouths. Primus knew they didn't need more sharp-glossa mechs.

The Ryu brothers, GoldyMarg, and Mic along with Vol stared astonished at the twins new features; Megatron had snickered, setting EnRyu back on the couch and handing back his bowl of Ramen that Sideswipe had passed out. The blue bot had given the twins their bowls, hoping they would enjoy the nice meal as Prime was sitting down with RaiRyu next to him and FuuRyu by his side.

VolFogg tilted his head. "Birdlike features and catlike features... why am I not surprised." He smiled at the pair. "Now you two have a lot more new things to learn..."

Optimus looked at the twins and his slurped up a large amount of noodles. He watched the twins as they looked at their bowls not quite sure what to do. He grinned when VolFogg motioned them to sit by him. He watched RaiRyu and FuuRyu slurping up the noodles and licking their lips at the wonderful taste.

SideSwipe sat next to Mic at the counter, both eating their bowls of hot and steamy ramen. Scavenger had picked up his own and was eating it at a steady pace, looking over at the new and improved GunMachines, "You two should start eating before it gets cold..." He heard some one cough and looked over at the couch and catching EnRyu coughing with HyoRyu patting his back.

"They don't know how, yet," VolFogg pointed out. He turned to the twins, demonstrating how to pick up the noodles and what to do with them. The twins exchanged glances, and then slowly reached for their own bowls, looking from the noodles to VolFogg and back.

Scavenger chuckled, "This should be interesting...." SideSwipe had overheard his former mentor and looked over the GunMachines, snickering.

VolFogg ignored the stares, concentrating on the twins. He had the distinct feeling that this was not going to be easy, for him or for GunDober and GunGlue. The tiger-helmed mech poked at the noodles, trying to pick one up. However, he underestimated how slippery it was and it got away. He snatched at it, trying to grab it again.

Sideswipe watched with a smile as the GunMachines were having trouble trying to grab at the noodles with the fork. He saw VolFogg eyeing him, then grinned, pulled out a camcorder and began to videotape the twins.

Scavenger looked back at Sideswipe and rolled his optics, going over to the couch and kicking GoldyMarg out of his spot and sat down next to Prime.

Prime looked back at the GunMachines, "You think giving them mouths was a good idea?" he asked and the older mech just nodded.

"They need to get used to Cybertronian products in order for them to survive..." Scavenger suddenly caught sight of RaiRyu peeking over FuuRyu's shoulder and looking at the GunMachines.

GunGlue yelped at his brother's sudden movement, managing to spill half his bowl over himself in the process. VolFogg sighed, ignoring the audience and continuing to try and teach the twins how to properly handle the food. Finally, GunDober managed to handle a noodle without dropping it, and grinned hugely.

Sideswipe giggled and circled the twins slowly, "It is April 2 of the human month and GunDober and GunGlue are having their very first meal by mouth…"

Prime groaned, "They aren't infants Sides," he finished the rest of his soup, "They just never ate by themselves before."

Scavenger smirked, "In other words that makes them like infants Prime..." Megatron snickered from across the couch, EnRyu and HyoRyu giggling next to him.

It wasn't long before there were noodles all over both the Gun Robot twins, and they even managed to get them all over VolFogg. Then, finally, GunGlue finally began getting the hang of it, making a pleased purring sound. GunDober glared at him from around a noodle hanging off the muzzle of his helm, and the heli-mech only grinned cheekily back at him.

"I hope you realize I'm not cleaning that up," Sideswipe said and grinned at the twins. "Come on Volie give them a hand," Sideswipe snickered to the purple ninja bot.

Prime was picking up the empty bowls that sat on the small table in front of the couch, "You may not be picking up THAT mess but I know you're probably gonna be picking up the mess that Vol may be making out of your ass when he slices you to pieces for that nickname..." The former Autobot Commander headed for the kitchen, Mic following him with some empty bowls in hand as well.

If looks could kill, the glare VolFogg aimed at Sideswipe would have reduced him to ashes on the spot. Putting his huge shuriken between himself and Sideswipe as a pointed warning not to call him that again, the ninja turned back to the twins just as GunDober finally managed to eat a noodle properly. Engine purring loudly, he made short work of the rest of the bowl.

Sideswipe pouted, putting the camera away, "Jeeze cant take a joke can you?"

Scavenger looked back at SideSwipe, "Swipes... stop pouting and get your ass over here..." he ordered, watching the young bot, completely unaware that RaiRyu was looking under the table at the pile of Holo-Vid disk.

He was pulling them out and looking at the titles, one caught his eye and he cocked his head not at the language but at the picture of the disk, "Why does this female have no armor?"

VolFogg snorted to himself, helping the twins get cleaned up. The pair kept looking for more of the tasty noodles; clearly their new appetites were enthusiastic. The purple mech finally had to pin GunGlue down and take a brush to him to get all the bits of food off his armor. Hearing RaiRyu, he paused and looked over at the yellow mech. "Rai, put that down, and leave it alone."

Sideswipe looked at Scavenger, "Why?"

"Because I wanna make sure that you're not crying your eyes out again," Scavenger looked back to the younger bot.

"I'm not THAT much of crybaby you know…" the blue and yellow bot frowned, almost pouted looking at his mentor.

The elder mech chuckled, "I think you need a vacation Sides…" he flashed a grin, "maybe even get laid."

Sideswipe blushed, giving a startled almost frightened grimace.

The purple ninja continued to watch RaiRyu, absently shifting to pin the squirming mech he was currently sitting on. "Rai! Put those things down and leave them!" His glare shifted to Optimus. "Would you kindly get those things away from RaiRyu?"

Optimus looked over when he heard VolFogg, he saw RaiRyu and dashed over and snatched the disk from. "Slagging hell Megs," the blue and silver bot grumbled, "Take your stash somewhere else so innocent optics wont see it!"

Megatron in the meantime grumbled, having being sick he carried his stash of porn to his quarters and back.

VolFogg reapplied the brush to GunGlue. "How the hell did you manage to get noodles into your rotor assembly?" He looked at the heli-mech, then at GunDober. Sighing, he dragged the twins toward the wash-racks. "You two need a bath..."

Megatron looked over at Vol, "The showers are the next level down ninja boy..." he yawned.

VolFogg made a sound that could double as an acknowledgement, dragging the squirming GunMachines in that direction. "Calm down, you two; you're not going to melt! If that stuff doesn't come off, it'll lock up your joints!"

VolFogg had to lock the door to the washracks and practically tie the twins down to get them to hold still. He ended up sitting on top of GunGlue again, pinning the squirming mech down so he could be washed while GunDober watched, distracted from his own thrashing by watching his brother. The purple mech hissed a few inventive curses under his breath as he used the brush on the heli-mech.

About half an hour later, VolFogg reappeared, dripping wet and not looking very happy. Two pairs of green optics peeked around the edge of the door behind him. Stopping in the middle of the room, he shook like a robotic dog, shedding water in all directions. "From the way they act around water, you'd think they were going to melt."

All mechs present quickly jumped out of the way, Scavenger growled, "There were towels in the showers you know..." he shook his arms and tried to get the water off. Prime had to wipe down his head, looking over the twins and Mic and seeing them do the same.

"Those are soaked, too," VolFogg replied. "The twins do not like water. At all." He headed for his room to dry off.

Scavenger wiped off the last of the water on his arms, "I can tell..." he grumbled.

Prime heard a sudden beep from his arm he opened the holo-screen and checked his messages. He sighed, "Well...since we've captured the bounty head, tomorrow we should head out to deliver him and collect the pay... And RaiRyu is due for a check up."

The elder mech looked over at Prime, "We better make sure that the ship is properly stationary before we head for recharge..." he saw Prime nod and head for the Control Deck. Yellow optics looked up into his internal clock and checked the time, "Damn... it's late and morning doesn't come so pleasantly on this frozen planet..."

"Any particular reason why?" Goldymarg had been watching the whole thing from where he took up most of the couch. "Is the weather here that bad?"

"There's a reason WHY not very many organisms live on this planet..." Prime said, after wiping the last bit of droplets, "It gets dark earlier, which means lower temperatures get their chance to do some damage. Wind becomes so fast that it could topple skyscrapers, hail storms, and the threat of leaking snow into the systems..."

Scavenger shrugged, "You know, the typical frozen weather problem."

Goldymarg snorted. "They never bothered me much... and try using EnRyu to de-ice the ship. He comes equipped with a flamethrower."

Prime had settled his three charges in their quarters; RaiRyu with Fuu and Mic shared a room. He felt bodies pass him by and saw EnRyu and HyoRyu head into their quarters; GoldyMarg slipped passed Prime and went into his. Megatron waved a good night, followed by a low grumble and Scavenger had forced Sideswipe into his quarters.

Prime sighed, "That's all of them..."

GunDober and GunGlue had gotten back into VolFogg's room and were sidling up to the purple mech, crooning apologies. Finally, VolFogg relented, moving over and giving them enough room to climb onto the berth. They settled one to either side of him, leaning against his sides and purring softly. He smiled slightly to himself, settling down and drifting into recharge.


	17. Nighttime Terrors

Chapter 17 ~ "Nighttime Terrors"

That night, the cold weather was howling, hailstones were pounding against the metal of the ship but not hard enough to make any damage. The small, curled up form of RaiRyu shook with every bang, flinching and whimpering. He was making small noises, garbled words and moving around; his mind would just not let him rest...

_He felt the cold, the darkness, the piercing hard stare of those red optics looking down on his bounded form. He was chained by the arms on a berth that was covered in old rags, dirty and grimey cloths. His legs were free for movement, however that just seemed to make things worse; Darius stroked RaiRyu's face with the back of his hand, RaiRyu growled and sent out a spark to scare him away._

_Darius flinched back and chuckled, "Oh...such a FireFly..." his large form crawled over and stood over RaiRyu, letting his finger trace the exposed form of the Yuusha's body. "So small and so fresh...your body is perfect for a good picking..." Darius leaned down and bit RaiRyu's neck; the yellow bot shuttered and struggled, feeling his teeth and his tongue against him. _

_"Get...off..." RaiRyu growled._

_Darius bit down hard on RaiRyu's neck and the smaller bot let out a cry of pain, "You are in no position to give me orders my little FireFly..." he snaked his hand down to the yellow bots interface, groping it. He watched as RaiRyu struggled, whimpering as tears were brimming his optics, Darius grinned, "That's it... let out your cry..." he licked his chest and sunk down to RaiRyu's interface_

_"My little FireFly..." with that, Darius lifted RaiRyu's legs above his head and removed his own codpiece. Screams were heard echoing through out the hall, the ever growing vision of Darius' face was smiling, grinning, laughing at the smaller bots pain, he could feel his own spark burst inside his chest..._

RaiRyu shot up from his berth, panting and whimpering, he shook violently against the pad of his berth. He looked around, only to find that he was in his quarters, he breathed and sobbed silently; he had to hide, he couldn't escape the effect of Darius, his horrifying stare. That's when RaiRyu stood up from his berth, and silently made his way out of the room and down the hall, down in the elevator, to the lowest point where he could hide.

He came upon the Engine Room, where the generators and the Engine itself made their work possible. He opened the door slowly, popping his head in and spotting no danger in sight, he shivered and hid behind a large generator, bringing his knees to his chest and hugging them. "No one can find me... I... have to stay away... far away..." his optics were flickering, his mind was slipping into a void of shock.

****************

VolFogg almost jumped right out of his armor, having been awakened by Rai coming out of the nightmare. The two GunMachines actually fell off the bunk, letting out squawks of surprise. The purple mech remained still for a moment, and then headed over to check on RaiRyu, stopping when he realized that the yellow mech wasn't in his room. Walking over to Prime's room, he rapped sharply on the door.

Optimus snorted and sat up. Rubbing his optic he opened the door, expecting RaiRyu, but a getting a purple bot instead. He frowned. "What's the matter?"

"RaiRyu had a nightmare," VolFogg informed the older mech bluntly. "I heard him; he woke the twins and I. And now he's not in his room."

"What?" He checked his room. "Get the twins and start searching. He couldn't have gone far." Optimus got on to the lift to make sure their prisoner didn't escape. When he got to the brig and saw that he was out, he quickly started to search the other rooms. Coming upon the engine room he quickly went inside to take a look. He almost left till he saw a flash of yellow. " RaiRyu! "

RaiRyu had jumped and crawled back, "No! Keep... keep away from me!" He dashed for the other side of the room and hid into the small space behind the second generator. The small yellow bot shook, grasping his head and burying it into his tightly clutched legs.

VolFogg darted around Prime. "Rai!" He knelt beside the yellow mech, reaching out to lightly touch his shoulder. "Rai, it's us. You're safe now... no one will hurt you." His voice was as soft and soothing as he could make it as he gently stroked the yellow mech's shoulder. When he looked up at Optimus, pink-red optics were cold and hard, blazing with frozen fire and cold rage. "I don't care how much of a bounty is on Darius's head... When next our paths cross, he dies," the ninja announced flatly.

"I was just thinking the same thing," he got down carefully so not to scare Rai, touched his hand and let his spark start to hum. It soothed the little mech somewhat so Optimus could pick him up, "It's okay, I got you…"

RaiRyu shivered, his head laying against Prime's chest hearing his slow and steady spark beat. He curled up and whimpered, "I... want it to stop..." he sobbed, "I want all of this to stop...." He felt powerful arms embrace him tightly, trying to protect him from the world.

VolFogg continued to stroke RaiRyu around Prime. "It will stop... but that will take time and effort. You must be strong; otherwise you will break, and probably drag Fuu down with you. Trust us, Rai... we will help."

Prime nodded to VolFogg, "Not what I had in mind…" he said flatly, "But okay…"

"Few things get through to a twin so well as the fact that they're bound to their brothers... So aim that swat somewhere else." VolFogg trotted after the larger mech, watching Prime carrying RaiRyu back to his room. The ninja mech watched a moment longer, then returned to his own quarters. Two pairs of green optics fixed on him immediately, and he walked over to join them.

RaiRyu smile a little and laid his head against the blue and silver chest. He felt Prime carry him back to his room; FuuRyu had practically tackled the two when he came back with RaiRyu.

The smaller yellow Yuusha's optics were dimming, his face growing warm when feeling his twin next to him and the warm embrace from his guardian. He felt safe, secured, everything was all right around him, at least for the moment. With one last yawn, he snuggled against his twin who snuggled him back and they boy laid against Prime's chest, falling into a deep recharge.


	18. Silver Star

Chapter 18 ~ "Silver Star"

_The Next Morning…_

RaiRyu and FuuRyu woke up with a startle at the rumbling and shaking of the ship. FuuRyu looked out of the window and noticed that they were rocketing into space, almost falling off the berth if it wasn't for the strap that was securely around him and his brother. Prime was gone as well, but left the twins bundled in a thermo blanket, they heard Scavenger's voice of the Ship's comn. "Hang on boys, we're heading for the next stop- The Silver Star Space Colony. We're gonna drop off the bounty head, pick up the pay and head for some relaxation..."

Goldymarg didn't even wake up, managing to snore through the launch. VolFogg was half buried under a pile of black and white and completely uninclined to move. He opened his optics as the ship launched, but made no attempt to extract himself from under his teammates.

Optimus finally got them out of the planet's atmosphere, and was currently warping them to their next destination. He smirked, looking back to the crew, "All right boys," he said, "We're meeting with our private client today, so make sure to clean up and look sharp!"

Scavenger glared over at Prime, "I took a bath yesterday..." He heard a snicker from Megatron, and the other mech threw another glare of him, "At least I don't waste the damn lubricants with a hour long bath..." He was referring to Megatron's bath time and his little rubber ducky.

"The twins and I had baths yesterday," VolFogg pointed out, still not moving. "I had to hold them down and take a brush to their armor. So we three are clean."

Optimus was about to say something when EnRyu ran and latched onto VolFogg, using him as a shield. HyoRyu ran in glaring at him. "Don't make me force you EnRyu. Bath."

"No."

"Bath."

"No!"

Prime groaned and looked to Megatron. "If I remember correctly, they're YOUR charges..."

Megatron himself growled and looked to the two arguing twins, "SILENCE!!!" His voice boomed across the ship, making the room shake as EnRyu and HyoRyu stood cold as stone. They looked into the face of their guardian that was (unfortunately) Megatron; the former con leader pointed to the door, "BATH. NOW."

VolFogg squawked in surprise. "Hey! EnRyu!" The GunMachines woke up with startled screeches, managing to almost completely bury their team leader under black and white metal. Two pairs of wide green optics fixed on Megatron at the roar he let out. VolFogg looked out from under GunGlue's arm, blinking.

EnRyu was not the type to take orders. "No!"

Sideswipe looked at the mech as if he had grown a second head, and then leaned into Scavenger. "He's dead." Scavenger merely grinned and nodded. Megatron was not the gentlest mech and they were both sure EnRyu would not enjoy being mech handled.

Megatron's red optics glowed brightly. "No..." His glare was dark as he loomed over the twins. "I'll show you what happens to mechs when they tell me 'no'..."

A few moments later, EnRyu was tired up and stripped of his armor as HyoRyu was cleaning him. EnRyu was giving a blazing glare at his guardian, 'slagging psycho!' he mumbled.

VolFogg lounged on his berth, watching on the wall monitor. The GunMachines were still draped over his back and legs, though he didn't mind as long as they kept off his light bar. "EnRyu, when will you ever learn?"

EnRyu was grumbling and seething at Megatron, letting his mouth run. Hyo kept trying to shush him seeing Megatron starting to look enraged.

"Oh icicles..." HyoRyu said as Megatron started his way towards the naked and soapy mech that was EnRyu.

Megatron had glared down at the red bot. "Mind saying that again boy?" his voice ran with venom as he bared his canines in a vicious smile.

"You might want to learn to restrain your temper, or at least think before you speak," VolFogg commented. "I would not recommend pissing off Megatron any more than you already have."

Of course EnRyu ignored his brother and VolFogg. "I said you are a drunk, perverted, nosy, loud, cock head with breath that would kill every living thing on any planet including underwater planets. " He glared at his guardian with hot pink optics.

Scavenger glared down at the red bot, "I would wrap this up sometime soon, we're approaching the station..." Megatron had cursed, missing the chance to give EnRyu a good beat down for his behavior. HyoRyu sighed and got his brother out of the shower and headed for their room just as the ship was descending.

Finally, the pile on the ninja team's berth began sorting itself out, VolFogg pulling himself out from under the twins and sitting up. They flanked him, watching the monitor as they approached the station.

EnRyu grinned as he took that spat as a victory. He walking with his head held high nose in the air and a cocky little smirk on his lips. Optimus set the ship down and let the techs start refueling and cleaning it up.

Scavenger, Megatron, and Sideswipe had taken the bounty head to their employer who seemed more than gracious with their results. They had brought along EnRyu, HyoRyu, and GoldyMarg so they wouldn't be the only ones to suffer.

For safety, Prime had the ninja team with him as well as RaiRyu, FuuRyu, and Mic. "Well we should be getting a decent pay out of this bounty head," Prime said, having RaiRyu close by his side, "And now we need to head out for the Cybertronian clinic down town. You're due for a check up."

Before leaving the ship, VolFogg managed to trip EnRyu, hissing "Get your manners straightened out!" at him before casually hopping out of kicking range, leading his team out of the ship. The GunMachines snickered softly, glancing at the fuming red mech before falling in beside and slightly behind VolFogg. They went after Prime in that near-silent trot they'd mastered.

EnRyu, not one to be beaten, let his ladder swing out, hitting VolFogg in the head causing his to crash into GunDober. EnRyu snickered and ran off before VolFogg could exact his revenge. But he knew the ninja bot would get him back some how, probably when he was asleep. He just hoped it wasn't anything painful.

Prime had rolled his optics, leading the group of Yuusha towards the downtown area. There were an abundance of species of organisms on this colony, some even the size of mechs when there weren't mechanical based beings. Prime stopped at a white building, checking the address then looking up at the sign, "Yup, this is the place..." he led the Yuusha inside the clinic, meeting with the secretary and asked about RaiRyu's appointment.

The secretary called the medic in and a bot in red and white walked in. "I'm guessing this is the boy Red Alert called me about?" His voice was raspy, and he sounded old.

Prime chuckled and rubbed RaiRyu's head. "Yup..." he answered and the medic smirked.

"Figures you would find yourself some nice charges Prime..." he said. "Always were good with kids..."

Prime smiled. "Of course Ratchet..."

VolFogg hissed something uncomplimentary under his breath. GunDober flashed him a wicked grin, an unspoken promise to help him later. They followed Prime to the clinic, looking at the old medic curiously. "Another comrade?" VolFogg asked curiously, tilting his head.

Prime nodded down at the purple mech. "Yup, used to be chief medic on Cybertron during the Great War…" The Autobot shook hands with Ratchet in a firm handshake, "Its nice to see you again my old friend…"

He snickered as Ratchet gave a small tap to Prime's forehead. "How many times to I have to tell ya," Ratchet smirked. "I ain't old…"

Prime just smiled up at the old medic, then turned towards the yellow bundle that was currently standing so close that he was trying to become one with Prime's armor. "Come on RaiRyu, Ratchet is the best medic I have ever known. He'll take care of you, just don't try and piss him off… " He grinned cheekily as Ratchet smacked him.

The old medic had closed the door behind him then settled RaiRyu on a table. "Okay kid, gonna have to have you lay down..." RaiRyu did as he was told. Ratchet did a few scans, diagnostics on RaiRyu's CPU, joint checks, and what not. He even had to spread the small yellow bot's legs in order to get a proper scan of the healing damage.

VolFogg crossed his arms over his chest, settling into a more relaxed stance. Behind him, GunGlue and GunDober were quietly discussing plans to pull on EnRyu. The purple mech listened to them, smiling slightly while they waited for Ratchet and RaiRyu to come out.

RaiRyu grimaced, he didn't like the way the medic was handling him... He whimpered when Ratchet had to manually check his interface.

"Easy now kid..." the old medic said. "Need to see if there is any scarring..." After a few more minutes of scans, system check ups, and one final injection of fluids, RaiRyu was released back to his group of brethren. Ratchet helped the small bot over to Prime. "He's a little out of it but after an hour or so he'll be fine." Ratchet held up a bottle of pills. "This should help with any pain..." the medic blinked, staring at the former Autobot leader sternly, "...and with any reoccurring nightmares..."

Optimus looked at Ratchet and nodded picking up RaiRyu in the process. He and Ratchet talked for a few moments and even talked about Ratchet possibly joining them. The answer Prime received was a definite "NO," from the elder medic. They then left the clinic with the blue and silver Autobot snickering at his old friend and headed for the quiet market.

VolFogg tilted his head toward Ratchet, the twins making soft but audible warbling sounds. Then all three followed Optimus, again moving in that nearly-silent trot. They caught up quickly and slowed, matching the larger mech's pace. Three pairs of optics looked around curiously.

Prime had received a message from Scavenger, saying that they had picked up the pay and were now heading for the market downtown. Prime nodded, positioning RaiRyu on the ground when he had got his bearings back and they headed for the location where they were going to meet the others.

****************

Prime's optics twitched, "Of all places you decided to meet HERE????"

Scavenger shrugged, "It was an easy place to spot."

GunDober and GunGlue looked around, making rumbles from their engines as they realized just what they were seeing. They eased closer to their team leader, looking around suspiciously. VolFogg followed their gazes, reaching down to take their hands briefly before returning his attention to the others.

Sideswipe was obviously uncomfortable, trying to sneak away when no one was looking.

Scavenger grabbed SideSwipe by the arm. "Oh no you don't..." He grinned down at the bot. "Like I said, you need a vacation..." He looked back at Megatron, who was obviously grinning wildly under his mask, "AND a good femme..."

Sideswipe groaned, "Nooo! I don't want to go in there! Please, please don't make me go in there. "

Prime was rubbing his temples. "You both are idiots...." he groaned, not paying attention to the fact that two barely-covered femmes walked by with EnRyu and GoldyMarg gawking at their slender forms.

VolFogg snorted to himself, glancing at the femmes briefly. GunDober hissed at them softly, moving closer to the purple mech again. Goldymarg managed to pull his optics away from the femmes long enough to look in the direction of the hiss and snort. "Looks like the GunMachines are jealous..." They promptly shot him identical glares.

One femme grabbed Megatron's hand and grinned she turned around, trying to drag him inside.

Megatron grinned, waving back at the group, "Later gentlemen, I have some... business to attend to..." He quickly ran off with the femme to the nearest hotel in the Red Light District.

Scavenger grinned and practically dragged SideSwipe into the 'block of pleasure.' The old mech threw Prime a few creds. "Don't spend it all at once when you're with the bots!" Within seconds, they were gone.

VolFogg shook his head, as close to rolling his optics as he could get. A black-and-white form pressed against him on either side, and he looked from one to the other. GunDober was hissing at another femme, and GunGlue's rotors were twitching. "This is going to be a rather interesting afternoon..."

Prime himself stood at the entrance of the district, completely dumbfounded. "Y-you....YOU SLAGGING JACKASSES!!!" I wanted femmes too..." He pouted mentally, taking hold of RaiRyu, who had been looking at an interesting poster, and he led the group of Yuusha to the shopping area.

GunDober and GunGlue were only too glad to leave the area, still flanking Volfogg possessively. The purple mech looked at them curiously, but said nothing; he'd ask once they were back on the ship and in private. Both purred as they left the Red Light district behind.

Prime pouted. He was upset about being denied to take care of his little problem. He looked down at his codpiece seeing it was bulging slightly though only he could tell. He sighed and took the bots to a safe place in the indoor mall. He sat down on a bench and let the mechs look through a large toy store. FuuRyu was excited and dragged RaiRyu all over the store. He watched as Vol and his two shadows vanish into a custom weapons shop.

EnRyu and HyoRyu had dragged Goldymarg to a custom arcade as Mic went alone into a music store. Prime had given them each an equal amount of creds to buy whatever they wanted, as long as it wasn't expensive. Mic himself had stumbled upon the racks of CDs, music holo-disk, and the instruments themselves; one of the workers had suggested buying a hot new single.

"They're getting popular fast," the store clerk said. "It's a Cybertronian group of Decepticons called 'The Black Knights', the lead singer is amazing!"

Mic had blinked his optics behind his visor and decided to listen to a demo of one of their songs. Mic moved slowly to the beat, then smiled wildly when finally getting into the song; the clerk was right, the lead singer WAS amazing. Especially when the lead singer was a femme.

GunGlue and GunDober were looking over a selection of blades, chirping softly to each other. VolFogg stood nearby, inspecting an array of rifles and guns. In his separate robot form he lacked any projectile weaponry; his throwing blades and Mirror Coat shuriken were his only weapons. He looked over each weapon carefully, examining each, until he found one that suited him.

The clerk looked up at VolFogg and could tell right away that this mech was a fighter. "Well, young mech, looking for anything special? I see you and your friend have a interests in blades and..." The mech pulled out handcrafted blade that was as red as a supernova sun. "This one I felt was always special but no one else seems to think so. Tell me what you think." He handed the blade to Vol.

Mic had happily walked out of the music store with the new CD and a few bags of extra guitar string. Prime had smiled when Mic was raving about his new gift that he bought. "She's fantastic! She's amazing! Can we go see her someday? Huh? Huh?"

The older Autobot chuckled. "Sure, when we have enough money and can find some tickets..." Prime watched as Mic grinned and headed for another store.

VolFogg scanned the blade carefully, and then slowly took it. He held it for a moment, testing the balance, then tried out a couple of moves with it. "Hmm. Not bad. The balance is perfect, the weight centered, and the blade is well-forged." He inspected the hilt of the weapon, then handed it back. GunGlue came over to look, churring softly.

The clerk smiled. "I agree completely. This is my sword but I'm closing down shop. Everything has to be sold, but I just can't sell this blade. I want someone who will take care of it." He handed the blade back to Volfogg and closed his hand around it.

Optimus watched as FuuRyu came bounding out with a few models to put together. RaiRyu came out after him holding a yellow dragon stuffed animal.

RaiRyu stood next to his brother who was chatting excitedly with Prime about his new figures; the yellow bot held onto his dragon tightly, not just because he didnt want to lose it but also because the damn thing was almost as big as he was. RaiRyu looked around at the other stores, noting fashion armor design, weapons, music and such; he spotted one store that caught his optic and quietly trotted over to shop.

VolFogg blinked, looking at the weapon. Then he nodded, accepting the sword. Turning slightly, he indicated his chosen weapon and asked about the price while the twins continued looking through the swords and knives, picking out weapons they liked.

The clerk smiled and nodded. "Nice there, kiddo. How about your friends? Everything is 60% off." He gave Vol the price and accepted the creds.

Optimus looked after RaiRyu. "Fuu, go watch him. Don't let him out of your sight. "


	19. Femmes no good

Chapter 19 ~ "Femmes no good…"

_Meanwhile…_

Sideswipe was leaning in close to Scavenger, trying to stay away from anything and everything.

Scavenger grinned, suddenly shoving him into a comfy-looking room and then shutting the door behind him. There was only one problem - it was chalk-full of Femmes...

Sideswipe, turned around and pounded on the door but it was locked. He was pulled away from a femme and squealed. He was scared out of his wits! He felt touched everywhere and he squeaked.

The blue and yellow bot laid flat on his back after it was all over and the femmes had left. He somehow, after all of that chaotic pleasure, just did NOT feel satisfied.

There was a knock on the door and Scavenger slid the door open. He looked down at the younger bot, "Looks like you seemed overwhelmed..." he came and sat down next to the blue bot.

Sideswipe only frowned.

Scavenger sighed, "First time must of gone bad huh?" he tapped at Sideswipes shoulder, "Come to think of it they weren't doing such a great job..."

Blue optics looked at the elder mech flatly.

Scavenger smiled sheepishly, "Take it easy Swipes..." He looked the smaller mech over, noting something interesting about his younger student, "you're still hard..."

Sideswipe blushed and tried to hide his face in the pillows.

Scavenger tapped him on the shoulder, "Sideswipe..." he said softly, "Can you look at me please?"

He shook his head, shoulders stiffening.

Scavenger sighed, forcing SideSwipe onto his back. Before he could respond Scavenger gave him a soft kiss on the lips, hands gently on his shoulders as his body leaned closer.

Sideswipe twitched a bit and for moment, acting as if he was going to struggle. But he relaxed, letting himself slip into the kiss.

Scavenger smirked, pulling away from the kiss, "Ah... I see that you liked that..." he ran a finger down over the bot's waist. He breathed, nuzzling Sideswipe's neck, "Hmm... those femmes didn't do such a great job..." he slid a hand down to the bot's interface and began to rub in softly, "Let me show you how it's done..."

Sideswipe's optics dimmed and a shaky breath escaped his lips. He felt his body heating up, his cooling systems now active. He wrapped his arms around Scavenger's neck and pulled him closer.

Scavenger trailed kisses down SideSwipe's wait, making the smaller mech breath softly. The older mech smirk, leaning down to SideSwipe's interface and kissed its softly, he looked up obviously please, "Hmm...you taste quite well..." he kissed his interface again, all the while stroking Sideswipe's thighs.

His hand lifted slightly balling into fists he took a gasping breath has his head tilted backwards and his legs twitch and spread wider.

Scavenger grinned, kissing his interface and sucking onto it one last time before removing his own codpeice. He revealed a very hard, very huge, very long rod and rubbed it between SideSwipe's thighs. "Now now..." he said softly, "Let's see how much you can handle..." He took both of Sideswipe's legs and lifted them high, almost above his head; he positioned himself, and then suddenly penetrated the bot.

Sideswipe held in a scream, biting his lip as his body stiffened. Feeling the penetration was painful, almost blinding-hot pain and agony rushing through his systems.

Scavenger smirked, moving in and out of Sideswipe slowly and smoothly, "Hmmm..." he leaned down to Sideswipe, still moving his body to the rhythm of his rod. He kissed him fully, "Take it easy Swipes..." he whispered, stroking his thighs, "You need to relax, just relax and enjoy this..." He looked up to the young bot's optics, "You know you need this..."

"You're hurting me," he managed to speak through clenched teeth and rising tears. He breathed, hands grasping Scavenger's shoulders, "Did you…" he winced, "did you ever do this to any of your students?"

Scavenger shook his head, "None the least..." he smiled and kissed him, "You're my first in over a million years Swipes..." His body moved back and forth, back and forth into Sideswipe. The elder mech kissed the tears away, "Don't cry Swipes... I know it hurts but it give it time..." he smiled softly, "You'll love it."

"I'm trying…" the younger mech croaked, "It hurts…"

Scavenger pulled out a little more, making sure not to shove his entire rod inside of him. "How's that?" he kissed the younger bot softly, moving his body back and forth.

Sideswipe relaxed a little bit, "Better…" he wrapped his arms around Scavenger's neck once more. He could feel his own rod becoming harder and wetter than before.

Scavenger noticed Sideswipe's little erection, "Hmm..." he lifted his legs up more, bring his smaller rod into his mouth, "There we go..." Scavenger moved back and forth, a little faster now, "Just tell me when you want to take it to full max..." he grinned.

Sideswipe gasped, fingers practically digging into the elder mech's armor. "More…" he breathed, "more Scavenger…"

Scavenger's grin grew wider, "I thought you would never ask..." with that he moved faster and faster. He was making Sideswipe's legs move like jelly as he pumped into him. He could feel it, his rod was pushing more and more inside of him.

The younger mech was practically moaning in pleasure, his glossa hanging out as lubricant ran down his chin. He felt his cooling systems go into overdrive, lubricant running down his arms and thighs, "So…hot…" he moaned.

Scavenger moaned, suddenly picking Sideswipe up and pinning him against the wall. Allowing Sideswipes leg to fall over his shoulders, he continued to pump into the younger bot, watching him suck on his own self. He pumped harder and faster, his body hurdling into the younger's bots entrance making him scream and reducing his form to jelly.

Sideswipe moaning, sucking and biting on his own fingers when feeling the sticky lubricant run down his aft. He legs waved up and down as his own mentor was penetrating him over and over again.

Scavenger moaned, "Damn...it's getting close..." he pumped faster, "It's...it's coming!" Before any more movement, Scavenger's rod exploded inside Sideswipe, the sheer force cause Sideswipe to scream in please and cum to burst out of his aft port, completely covering him. Scavenger breath, falling back on the ground and letting Sideswipe sit atop his rod, his aft port closing in on the entire thing.

The elder mech smirked, breathing as the younger bot laid atop of him. He saw that Sideswipe had yet to reach an overload, "Let me take care of that for you..." he brought a large purple hand up and pinched Sideswipe's rod, suddenly rubbing it slowly. "Just relax and concentrate of the pleasure..." he kissed him softly, "You're well enough to cum on your own Swipes..." he rubbed his rod slowly.

Sideswipe was all much limp, his limbs like jelly but his rod was hard. The larger purple fingers stroking him were making it harder to contain himself. His legs twitched, his teeth clenched but he couldn't hide the pleasurable moan. Within seconds, he felt his rod flush out the lubricant that had been building up for his overload.

Scavenger caught the young bot and held onto him closely, chuckling at the sight of Sideswipe's smiling face that was panting, "Ahhhh..." He licked Sideswipe's neck and kissed him softly, "Nice work rookie..." he grinned, laying exposed with Sideswipe atop of him on the floor, "Now you'll be able to handle even femmes..."

Sideswipe blinked, smirking, "Yeah," he panted, "let's just hope they are as good as you were…" He yawned, his optics dimming a little bit due to the lack of energy.

Scavenger patted the bot, "Take a rest Swipes..." he said softly, "We still have an hour till we have to meet Prime and the others...so take it easy.."

There was no real response, just the smooth and soothing sounds of the younger mech in recharge…


	20. Make a Wish

Chapter 20 ~ "Make a wish"

VolFogg shouldered his new weapon and the ammunition, watching the twins make their choices. GunDober chose a sword, while GunGlue, who specialized in close combat, picked out a pair of nasty-looking long knives. They inspected their choices carefully, making pleased sounds before paying for the weapons.

The clerk smiled and nodded.

VolFogg and the twins, carrying their new weapons, emerged from the shop, rejoining the others. GunGlue looked at RaiRyu's stuffed dragon, smiling at him. Then both of the twins disappeared into the store. VolFogg chuckled, watching them.

RaiRyu smiled, picking out the freshest and most beautiful flowers he could buy and brought them back to Prime. Prime looked up at the yellow bot, seeing him sit down next to him and present him with these arrangement of flowers, "They look...pretty," RaiRyu looked up to Prime, "Do you know what they're called? And why is it that this one looks funny?" He pointed to the various flowers.

RaiRyu looked over the selection of flowers at the florist he had stumbled upon. "They all look so... different from Earth's flowers..." He felt his brother walk up behind him and looked down at the collection of colors before them.

Prime chuckled, pointing to the white one that sparkled. "This one can glow when you touch it, and this one..." he pointed a blue metallic one, "This one is said to grant wishes..." He saw RaiRyu blink up at him.

"How...?" the lightning dragon asked, just in time for Mic to pop back up from nowhere.

Prime chuckled and plucked up the flower. "You count the petals, then make your wish..." he said softly, "And then blow them to the wind."

VolFogg came over, curious. "Do they actually work?" He was skeptical, but privately he hoped so... he had a wish of his own that he hoped would one day be granted.

"They do work most of the time…" the blue and silver bot chuckled, "If you're willing to believe it." He held up the flower to the Yuusha, "However it depends on how many petals there are when you make the wish..." Prime looked at the flower, twisting it around in his fingers. "How many petals there are depends on how long you have to wait before your wish is granted..." He gave the flower back to RaiRyu

VolFogg tilted his head, silently counting the petals. "Does it work for just one person, or several?" He knew the other Yuusha could probably guess what he was thinking of, though the Cybertronians probably couldn't.

There was another chuckle, "I'm not too sure on that one…"

RaiRyu looked up to Prime, then back at the flower in his hand; a wish, for anything in the universe...

Mic looked upon the flower as well, knowing what he wanted to wish for. RaiRyu and Mic silently counted the petals, and drawing a breath along with VolFogg, the three blew upon the flower. Good thing that the shopping market was outside, for the artificial wind of the Space Colony blew the blue petals into the distance and the three pairs of optics looked up hopefully as they floated away.

VolFogg watched the petals blow away, hoping that his wish would one day be granted. Then his attention was caught by the returning Gun Robot twins, and he had to chuckle. GunDober was happily carrying a stuffed tiger, while GunGlue had a hawk and a wolf. The hawk-helmed twin chirped cheerfully, passing the wolf to the purple mech. Smiling, Volfogg accepted it. "Chou Bunshin Sappou... Hawk, Tiger, and Wolf... How did you manage to find anything like this here?"

Optimus smiled at the young bots, looking over the younger bots fondly. He sighed, feeling his tank rumble and smirked, "Okay boys," he called out, "Who's hungry?"

Almost all the bots raised their hands.

****************

Prime smiled a the group, sitting at a table with an empty plate next to him. The Yuusha had already had their meal for the day, and were currently chatting away at what they got; EnRyu and HyoRyu had somehow managed to get a high score on a video game at the arcade and won a few new video games. Where as GoldyMarg bought some... interesting books, although he hadn't checked the titles yet...

GunDober and GunGlue were chirping and chittering, while VolFogg translated for them. More than once he had to tell them not to speak at the same time; he couldn't translate both at once. The purple mech glanced over at Goldymarg; he hadn't pegged the much larger mech as a reader. But then, anything was possible.

Optimus chuckled at the group of Yuusha, sitting back in a chair and trying to relax for a moment. His optic twitched, the slight stinging sensation in his codpiece had been nagging at him all day…

Scavenger was supporting a very tired, very pleasure-filled SideSwipe as they arrived at the cafe; the blue bot was currently latching onto his mentor, "That... was awesome..." he whispered, "Thank you."

Scavenger smirked, suddenly spotting Megatron approaching; the Decepticon looked as if her were walking strangely.

Megatron sat down on a chair next to Prime, hissing when his aft hit the seat. "Oh my bloody ass..."

VolFogg glanced up as Megatron arrived, then his head whipped around sharply as GunDober, having been carefully watching how the other mechs formed words, began trying them himself. He got out a few recognizable words, looking very pleased with himself. GunGlue stared at his brother for a long moment, astonished.

Megatron rubbed his aft. "She was a bloody piece of work..." he groaned. "But she insisted on using the damn dildo..." He looked up to see Scavenger settle Sideswipe in a chair next to VolFogg and then sat down himself.

Prime's message inbox beeped and he checked the holo-screen on his arm, he grinned, "Looks like there's a new bounty head on the charts..."

The ninja mech tilted his head, temporarily distracted from his teammates as both of them began trying out their newfound voices. "Oh? Do tell."

Prime looked over the new bounty head. "Well, all that I we got is she is a femme. We just gotta wait for more information, when it comes."

"What's the status of capture?" Megatron muttered from his spot with his head laying on the table.

Prime blinked, scrolling down the page and he winced when finding the answer. "DEAD: for over $500 million creds..." Money like that was hard to come by, but apparently it wasn't that much for a bounty hunter with a large crew and a ship with high maintenance.

VolFogg tilted his head. "A femme? Is that normal, or is a female bounty head unusual?" He walked over to get a look at the screen for himself, eyeing the displayed information before returning to his seat. "They seem to want her dead quite badly..."

"Why I don't know but femme bounties are rare. Most of the time it's an escaped femme slave wanted dead, but we always just make a body of the femme and send it. Cause most of the time they are kidnapped. But this doesn't sound like that kind of problem. Stolen information perhaps? " The blue and silver bot looked at Megatron.

Megatron shook his head. "Highly doubt it, much much worse than that..." He looked over at Prime's holo-screen. "Looks like she's wanted for assassinations of major entrepreneurs..."

Scavenger blinked. "What was her hit list?"

Prime scrolled through the page. "Big top money... one of them provides funding for the Earth Energon Project..."

That managed to get even the GunMachines' attention; there was silence as they turned to look at Megatron, then at Prime. VolFogg blinked again. "A female assassin... I've heard rumors on our Earth. A difficult target, then."

Optimus nodded. "Yes..." He couldn't think clearly with this damn hard on! He growled and shut off the holo screen and let his head hit the table with a thunk.

"Welcome to my world, Prime..." Megatron had laid his head on the table as well. "Let's get back to the ship before I go into stasis..."

Scavenger nodded, helping Sideswipe up. "Plus I think the maintenance crew at the docks is waiting for the pay..." he groaned. "We keep them waiting any longer they're gonna charge us."

VolFogg nodded. "Then we should get going..." He prodded Goldymarg to catch the larger mech's attention. Pink optics glared at him from over a book. The ninja only smiled slightly as GunGlue and GunDober rose to their feet, once again chattering softly.

Optimus stood making sure FuuRyu and RaiRyu were in front of him. When they got there they found their host had paid for any repairs and refueling on the ship. Once they were on board, most headed for their rooms, some for the lounge to watch TV. Optimus fell face down on to his berth, groaning as the sensation in his codpiece grew larger.

Scavenger had knocked on the door to Prime's room. "Hey Prime..." he was snickering, noticing that the former leader was clutching to his codpiece. "I see you're really... hard..." Scavenger walked around and stood in front of the berth. "This is why I took the liberty and ordered you a surprise..."

Prime looked up from the berth and his optics went over-wide, "I LOVE you Scavenger..."

The old mech waved back, leaving Prime with the three femmes he had ordered for him alone. He grinned when the femmes surrounded him, placing their hands all over her. As the doors closed behind Scavenger, he could have sworn he heard Prime moan, "Ohhhhh yesssss…"

Goldymarg settled onto one of the couches, once again absorbed in his book. VolFogg retreated to his own quarters, stretching out on the berth. Even before he stopped moving he had company. GunDober settled on his left and GunGlue on his right, leaning against him, each with an arm draped over his back. The purple mech let out a soft sigh, letting himself doze off.


	21. Let's all go to the ball!

Chapter 21 ~ "Lets all go to the ball!"

That night, Scavenger had launched the ship after Prime had his own little fun time. They would arrive at their next destination, which was planet called Exus; it was similar to Earth, only with an abundance of different alien life. It was mainly where the rich settled their plans on. Basically it was the capital planet for entrepreneurs.

VolFogg spent most of the trip teaching the GunMachine twins how to speak. By the time they arrived, both could speak fairly well, though occasionally they lapsed back into their original language, of chirps and whirs and other sounds. They even sounded alike when using words, though GunDober had a faintly purring accent, like a large cat.

Optimus was laying in his recharge berth while Scavenger was piloting the ship. He lay thinking to himself... a female bounty head. Megatron could not be allowed on this one; he's won over by femmes too easily. As he was thinking he let his hand drift down to his open codpiece. He was deep in thought and almost screamed like a femme when Scavenger walked in to tell him they were landing,

Scavenger's optics blinked, then rubbed his face. "Put that thing away, Prime..." he groaned. "We're landing at the docks, and I already have the perfect plan to try and find this femme..."

Prime was covering himself with legs intertwined with each other, he moaned after the old mech left his quarters. "I really need to get better lock on that door..."

****************

It wasn't long until the Guardian landed in the docks of the major city of Exus, Solsta. It was a LARGE city, highly populated and highly indulged into the stock markets of the universe, however that only meant with the more money the more people who would try to steal it.

VolFogg watched the view screen from his berth as they landed, the twins pressed against his sides. He was getting used to their newfound need to touch, so he no longer jumped when their hands petted his armored back and shoulders. The new planet looked rather interesting, and he sighed slightly as he extricated himself from the mech pile on the berth. "Time to go to work..."

Optimus walked onto deck and did a double take of Sideswipe, sitting on a rather large and soft looking pillow. He looked at Megatron. "You are to stay on the ship with the younglings... I know how you are with femmes."

Megatron glared, wincing. "Fine..." he grumbled. "My ass still hurts anyway..." Sideswipe added on to that statement with a small moan.

RaiRyu had been sitting in front of the small table of the common by Megatron's feet, he looked from his pile of flowers that he was arranging. "Are you sure it's going to be safe out there for you, sir?" FuuRyu blinked down at his twin, having been sitting next to him the whole time while EnRyu and HyoRyu were playing video games on the Holo-screen.

Prime looked down to RaiRyu and smile, "Yes I'm sure kiddo," he smirked, "I'll make sure that these bozos are too."

The three mechs of the ninja team appeared out of nowhere, as was their norm. "We're ready," GunDober announced, looking over at Prime.

"Good," the blue and silver bot nodded the ninja trio.

They had left the ship, the small crew following Scavenger through the city; the older mech was holding a briefcase full of... something. They stopped at a small cafe near the park; Scavenger set the briefcase down on the table where they were sitting at. "All right..." He flicked open the latch of the case. "We all know that this femme targets boys with big money, so..." He pulled out an envelope with fancy lettering written on the front. "We're going to attend a little party."

GunGlue let out a purring sound, tugging lightly on the flowing red scarf he'd managed to find and insisted that VolFogg wear. The taller mech smiled at him, then turned back to Scavenger. "What kind of party, and is there any more information about who we are looking for?"

"We are still not to clear on that; all we know is she will be there. So…" Optimus stood. "We need something a little more..." He looked down at himself, "pleasant looking then what we have on."

Scavenger lifted up a finger at that. "That's why I brought a few things..." He pulled out a few dress-cloaks, armor polish and metallic paint. "This is a 'Black-Tie-Affair' as the humans would say, so we need to look sharp to blend into this sorta crowd." He pulled up the holo-screen on his arm. "The party is tonight around the 8th cycle, we have our own table AND a set of names..."

VolFogg nodded, then looked at himself. "We are more used to blending in and going unnoticed; this is going to be interesting." He absently stroked the edge of the scarf while looking at the holoscreen, shifting so GunDober could see.

****************

A few hours went by, and the group had arrived at the estate where the banquet was being held at. It was large white building, front yard fountain and all; Scavenger looked up at the building, wearing a dark purple dress cloak and his armor glistening. "Well this is the place..." He led the group inside where a guard plus a greeter stood.

Scavenger handed them the invitation and the greeter's eyes doubled in size. "My goodness! So glad to have you hear sir! We'll get your table ready right away..." He was bowing at the group with every step. Scavenger grinned.

VolFogg smiled to himself, adjusting his dress cloak slightly. A light breeze blew his scarf out behind him. GunDober and GunGlue flanked him, armor gleaming, and the heli-mech's cloak draped so as to avoid the rotor blades on his back, GunDober's to avoid getting snarled in the tires mounted on his legs. They followed Scavenger and Prime, making some effort to make noise. Their silent steps were unnerving to most people.

As they walked, Prime had spotted a certain yellow mech, "Oh no..." He hid behind Scavenger. "You didn't tell me Hot Shot was going to be here!"

Scavenger shifted his optics to the yellow Autobot Commander and smirked. "5 years and the kid still looks the same..." He looked back at Prime, knowing very well why. He sent a text to Prime's message when they were seated at their table, 'You should give it to Hot Shot before we leave this planet... he isn't officially the Commander without it'.

VolFogg looked over at the yellow mech in question, guessing that this mech was someone Optimus had known in his past. He nodded slowly, giving his agreement. "Fortunately, we are new to this universe, so he won't know the twins and I." He looked around the room again, ignoring a few curious looks.

Prime watched Hot Shot closely noticing that Scavenger's statement was indeed correct. The young Autobot Commander was greeting the guests for the funding of the energon project. He narrowed his optics, sighing and followed his crew to their table.

When they had sat down at their table, Prime went for the highgrade, "I have to admit, Locktread, you have taste." He was poured a glass of a very expensive brand of highgrade energon.

Scavenger winced at the name. "Why did you have to choose THAT name..." he muttered, suddenly aware of their waitress, who was pouring them their high grade. She was a slim, beautiful femme, wearing a waitress armor outfit of red and white, with her blood red synthetic hair braided and hanging over her shoulder. Scavenger eyed her, she was pretty he'll give that; he grinned at the sight of her chest.

VolFogg snorted, looking at his own glass of high grade. The twins looked at theirs, giving soft chirrs to let him know that they had learned from their first encounter with the stuff. They would be careful not to get overenergized. The purple mech nodded, then waited until the waitress had left before lowering his voice carefully. "So... does anyone have an ideas on who we are looking for?"

Optimus sipped on his energon. "It's pay back for walking in on me in my private time."

Scavenger snorted at Prime. "Well, for starters, Vol..." he took a sip at his high grade, "She's slimming, sexy, great at disguises..." The old mech blinked his optics, "She would be undercover as someone of high power in order to get close to her targets..." He narrowed his optics.

He looked up when the waitress came back with their menus. "Care to order anything gentlemen?" Her voice was soft.

VolFogg took the menu, looking it over. The twins looked over his shoulders; debating with each other in soft chitters and whirs. "Hmm..."

Optimus snatched up the menu and began looking through it. He loved food; he was almost drooling over everything his optics came upon. Then he settled on something, "I'll think I'll go with the Energon flip, with the plus oil no coolant... extra on the wax and rust and a Nexus sheen drip. "

The waitress smiled, tapping her note-screen on all the food they ordered; as soon as she left, Scavenger took another sip of his high-grade. "We should be looking out for any femmes that would fit her actions..." He looked at the corner or his optic at all the other tables; people were getting ready for their meals and the great presentation afterwards. He spotted all sorts of femmes, mechs and non-mechs, all dressed in their outfits of polished armor or sparkly polish.

VolFogg took a careful sip of his high-grade, raising an optic rim as he put the glass back down. "Quite strong stuff," he observed, then turned his attention back to the others. His gaze swept over the crowd in the room, making note of each and every other person there.

"I am, you know, how I can have a good time but be paying attention, relax and enjoy it too, you old cock sucker." He snickered at Scavenger. "Besides, VolFogg has training in this, too. We're covered; relax." He tapped on the elder mech's thigh under the table playfully.

Scavenger took his fork and stuck into Prime's hand. Prime held in a yelp with his optics blaring wide and his teeth gritted in a wide grin. Scavenger smirked, then noted that the food was being passed out; this was odd, nothing has happened yet and it was quickly getting to the end of the banquet. Scavenger retrieved his fork from Prime's hand, the bot was grumbling while scooting away a bit.

GunDober let out a soft purring laugh, green optics glittering with amusement. GunGlue grinned around VolFogg's shoulder, and then applied himself to his own food once it was placed in front of him. He ate quickly but neatly; he had had some manners trained into him since the upgrade. VolFogg smiled to himself at Scavenger and Prime's antics, keeping an eye on the rest of the crowd while he ate.

Optimus cradled his injured hand, licking the wound with his glossa. He shot off a dental picker and almost squealed in victory when it met its mark right into Scavenger's codpiece, the sharp object piercing the older mech's interface unit.

Scavenger cringed, pulling the dental picker out and glared at Prime. "You're an idiot..." he growled when Prime snickered. Everyone had finished eating, and the presentation was about to begin when Prime spotted Hot Shot walking onto the stage with JetFire behind him. The lights dimmed, and the spotlight was on the young Autobot Commander as he begun his thanks on everyone participating and such.

Scavenger had looked away from his former charge to a table where a femme sat with a small pipe in her mouth and what looked to be a handbag that was oddly shaped.

VolFogg sighed; pinching the bridge of his nose in a gesture learned from the humans he had once worked with, muttering under his breath. He gave the other two a look that said, "behave", though he cherished no illusions that they would pay the least bit of attention to him. GunDober and GunGlue snickered under their breath, and then looked at him innocently when he transferred that look to them.

Prime's optics narrowed, following Scavenger's gaze and spotting the handbag. He frowned, "No…" he whispered, "Hot Shot couldn't be the target…"

Hot Shot said his final words before hearing the series of applause as he left off the stage with JetFire following him. Prime sighed, he was off the stage but that didn't mean he wasn't a potential target... Scavenger was eying the femme with the pipe, suddenly see her whisper something to her date and head out of the room, taking her handbag with her. The old mech narrowed his optics. "I think we may have her... or at least a suspect..."

VolFogg looked at Prime, pink optics glowing in the dark, giving Prime a look that cautioned him to calm down. It would do no one any good to move too soon. Hearing Scavenger, he looked in the direction the old mech was, watching the indicated femme. "Hmm..."

Scavenger wiped his mouth, keeping his head low as Hot Shot and JetFire passed by. After everything was clear, he got up from the table and went to follow the femme; he had to move quickly so he pretty much power-walked getting ever so closer towards the femme. She had gone into the femmes disposal unit; Scavenger cursed knowing he couldn't go inside without anyone spotting him.

VolFogg watched the old mech, choosing instead to keep an eye on the rest of the crowd. He had long since learned to trust his instincts, and he knew that seldom were things exactly as they seemed. His body was tense; he sensed that something was up.

Prime sat quietly at his seat, waiting for any signs of something suspicious. It became quiet for a moment, and he watched as several unknown yet well-dressed mechs walked onto the stage to give thanks to the young Autobot Commander. Everything seemed fine, until there was a faint sound…

CLICK!

Before the blue and silver bot could do anything, shots were fired at the stage…


	22. Mosa

Chapter 22 ~ "Mosa"

Energon spewed from the helm of an unfortunate mech, his body dropping to the ground with dead weight. There was a splatter of energon coating yellow armor, blue optics were staring at the dead body with horror. Hot Shot was kneeling on the floor of the platform with JetFire by his side, acting as a two-ton shield.

Optimus was standing up from the table he had been sitting at, handgun drawn as he stood a few feet from the younger Autobot Commander on the platform. His optics narrowed, looking around from where the bullet had been fired. "Damnit…" the blue and silver bot growled, "He got away…"

Scavenger jumped when hearing the shots fired, and looked back at the femme who had just come out of the ladies room. He saw that she was fiddling with her faceplate makeup in her handbag. "Damnit..." Scavenger raced towards the stage only to find Prime looked over a dead body of an entrepreneur, his glistening armored clothes were soaked with energon and oil. He growled. "Where did it come from?"

"It came for the west side," Prime said, keeping his head down as he made his way off the platform.

VolFogg was in movement a moment later, straight up. His formal cloak spread out to either side of him like wings as he vaulted over the table, the twins right behind him, heading in the direction the shot had come from. The scattering crowd barely noticed the three, except for when GunGlue, unable to find a clear spot to touch down and push off again, had to use a particularly bulky mech as a springboard. He was gone again before the startled mech could spot him.

The halls were properly lit when VolFogg and the twins headed towards the tall balcony that looked over the stage. A clear shot, perfect for any sniper... VolFogg were switching from wall to wall when suddenly reaching a series of doors.

The ninja mech landed on the balcony, narrowed optics scanning over the doors. Once the twins had touched down, balancing neatly on the railing, the purple mech rose to his feet, stalking silently across the balcony. He moved slowly past each door, recalibrating his optics to pick up recent heat trails. Spotting one, he paused, then grabbed hold of the door and wrenched it open in one swift move.

There was a startled scream as VolFogg opened the door; the femme that had been their waitress was putting on her comfortable armor when the ninja bot had walked in on her. She held onto her armor, snapping the latches on. "By Primus you startled me..." she said, relieved. "Did you hear those shots outside?" she looked worried and frightened.

The ninja scrutinized her carefully. "I did, yes. One of the entrepreneurs is dead. Shot by an assassin." Pink optics narrowed, glowing slightly. "A shot that could only have been fired from someone in this area. Did you see anyone suspicious in this vicinity?"

The femme shook her head. "I heard footsteps run by the door, but that was sometime ago..." She sighed, finally finishing with her armor. She took her synthetic hair out of the braid and let it fall, shaking her hair to let it puff out.

The purple mech eyed her for a moment, turning to scan the balcony again. He couldn't see any other heat trails, but then again, he knew how quickly they faded. GunGlue let out a low chirp, his rotors spinning rapidly. VolFogg's red scarf blew out in front of him, and his cloak shifted to reveal glints of purple and grey, with the occasional flash of red or gold. "Which direction?"

"I'm not sure, I was inside here the whole time..." She played with her hair. "Hey... you were sitting at the table I was working at were you?" She smiled, looking the mech over politely.

VolFogg nodded. "I was, yes." He looked her over. The GunMachines eased closer to him.

"You were sitting with that Ambassador from Cybertron's Defense Department right?" She fixed her hair. "Must be exciting to work with someone like that, always around the universe and all..."

"It is. One meets a great deal of interesting people and sees many interesting places in such a job." VolFogg scanned the area again. The eyes of GunDober's tiger helm glowed orange, and light glittered along the cat ears as he looked around, and GunGlue's hawk-wing helm ornaments gleamed. The purple mech turned to examine the corridors, revealing the white along the backs of his legs.

The femme went to go pack her stuff up when she suddenly looked out the window. "Hey... hey sir! There's someone outside!" She looked over the railing when she felt something grab onto her and she toppled over the edge.

VolFogg sprang forward, diving after her. He caught her neatly, sweeping his cloak out of the way and activating his thrusters. Greenish fire shot out of the vents under his police light bar, slowing their fall. He touched down lightly, placing her carefully on her feet.

The femme looked at VolFogg, shocked, "That was... amazing..." She looked him over. "How'd you do that?"

VolFogg smiled slightly. "I have built-in thrusters for flight. Not a usual ability for a police car, normally a ground-bound mech... but well within a ninja's bag of tricks." Overhead, the Gun Robot twins perched on the railing, glowering unnoticed at the femme.

The femme smiled. "Interesting..." she giggled. "A ninja's bag of tricks, think you could make me disappear?"

There was the sudden flashing of lights and voices, the femme recognize them as the guards and she took VolFogg towards the garden, where they stopped at the fountain. One of the guards followed. "Hey! Stop! This is private property!"

The femme cursed, knowing that the guard wouldn't believe their story; her attention turned to VolFogg. Without hesitation, she took his face into her hands and kissed him fully, everything seemed to slow down as her lips met his.

The purple mech's train of thought promptly crashed and burned. He went stiff with astonishment; he had been opening his mouth to speak when she had kissed him, giving her access. Under his chestplate, his primary fuel pump skipped a few beats, and his internal temperature rose several degrees. Slowly, cautiously, he returned the kiss, not certain he was doing it right. Overhead, from the twins came a pair of twin hisses, and both glared daggers at the female.

The guard had quickly turned away when seeing the two. "Oh, I'm sorry sir... mam... excuse my intrusion..." The guard left them alone.

The femme pulled away from the kiss and tucked her hair behind her audio. "Sorry... about that. Needed someway to get them away so we wont get mistaken for the crime..." She looked up at VolFogg, "I'm... Mosa, by the way..."

VolFogg's mouth opened and closed soundlessly for a moment. Then he visibly shook himself to get his thoughts straightened out. Clearly that had been a first for him. "I am VolFogg... My teammates are GunDober, the Tiger, and GunGlue, the Hawk."

Mosa smiled. "Ah those friends of yours that are staring at us from the balcony?" She pointed to the twins, and then laughed. "They seem to be missing you..." They started heading out of the garden, towards the entrance of the building. VolFogg had stated that the 'Ambassador' had already left and they needed to catch up, Mosa nodded, "I understand..." she smiled, "I'll see you around some time... Oh and I have to say, you're a good kisser."

The twins leaped off the railing, pacing them as they walked, quick shadows in the darkness. VolFogg moved away, toward the rest of the group, GunDober and GunGlue following. The tiger-helmed mech paused once, the eyes of his tiger helm blazing orange, and hissed at Mosa one last time before dropping off the building, landing at VolFogg's side.

Optimus and Scavenger reached the ship, VolFogg not far behind with the twins. They boarded and Optimus tried to put as much space between him and Scavenger as fast as he could.

Scavenger had glared at Prime. "Come close and I'll rip your interface off..." He was NOT a happy bot at the moment, they were close...they were SO CLOSE to the bounty head and a misleading femme drew them away. He growled when they entered the ship and headed straight for his quarters, shutting the door and started making new plans.

The purple mech maneuvered around Prime and headed for his own quarters without saying a word. GunGlue made a ratcheting sound, and GunDober bristled. Clearly they greatly disliked whatever had happened between their team leader and the femme. Both were clearly displaying the signs of possessive jealousy.

****************

That night, the blue and silver bot had entered Scavenger quarters to find him typing away at his personal monitor. He snickered, sliding his head onto the elder mech's shoulder with optics squinting at him, "WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?" he made his voice sound like a serpent.

Scavenger grumbled, "Get off me you lugnut..." he pushed Prime off, the bot giving a low growl. Scavenger tapped through the holo-screen he was looking at, "I have a new plan for the bounty head, save your ass for later Prime..."

Prime shot up to his feet and dusted himself off, "All right you old crony...what is it?"

Scavenger tapped at the screen again, "The market in this city is basically chock-full of stock-market workers. There is reason to believe that she might target any worker that'll get the most money, take him out, and then take the ticket for the creds..." He brought his fingers to his chin, "We might wanna head out for the market tomorrow, and the ninja bots are still with us on this bounty head..."

In his room VolFogg dropped his cloak onto a chair, flopping onto the berth. He immediately had two black-and-white shapes pressed against him, almost glued to his armor. They made purring sounds, stroking across his back and shoulders, reestablishing their claim to him. He didn't seem to notice, his thoughts somewhere else entirely.

Sideswipe ran into VolFogg's room and jumped on the bed, "What happened? Where are Prime and Scavenger?"

The ninja team had jumped when Sideswipe had burst in, VolFogg's head going up suddenly while the GunMachines screeched at the intruder, hiding purple armor under black-and-white.

VolFogg had pointed to Scavenger's room and Sideswipe ran outside.

Once Sideswipe was gone, they relaxed somewhat, but didn't move from their new perch. VolFogg reached back to rub behind the cat ears of GunDober's helm, and GunGlue twisted so that VolFogg's other hand could reach the sensitive spot at the base of his rotor blades. The ninja smiled as he obeyed the silent request for a scratch.

The younger blue and yellow mech came to Scavenger's quarters to find the two older Autobots discussing the new plans. He asked the questions again and Scavenger explained what happened, followed by, "Swipes, we're gonna need your help with this one..." He saw the young bot's face become puzzled, "I know you're an ace hacker Swipes, so I'm wondering if you could tap into the security camera network at the market and tell us if you find anything when while we're there tomorrow."

Scavenger looked at Sideswipe's sternly, "If we somehow manage to lose her again, you can use the security cameras to track her."

Sideswipe blinked then grinned, "I get to track a femme?" he was practically giddy, "AND catch her????"

Scavenger chuckled and rubbed Sideswipe's head. "Hey kid, lay off the sweet stuff..." He smirked. "Yes you get to help out. You'll be able to hack into the network from the control deck of the ship, use the big holo-vid and not the pathetic small one please?"

He saw the younger bot nod excitedly and scamper out of the room. Scavenger just shook his head, "I swear that kid can be a nutcase sometimes," he smiled.


	23. Let's put this plan in motion

Chapter 23 ~ "Let's put this plan in motion…"

The next morning was the briefing of their plans, Megatron was to stay on board once again with the rest of the Yuusha while SideSwipe was up in the control deck, typing away at the large holo-vid with codes, links, and such flashing through the screen. Prime and the others had already left for the market.

VolFogg trotted along with Prime, discreetly looking around for any signs of Mosa. The twins muttered and growled to each other, not liking the female for trying to take their team leader away from them. They were with him the longest; he was theirs. The female made their hackles stand on end.

"I'm in…" Sideswipe voice chimed over the comn system, "I can see you guys right now. I'll keep an optic out for anything at all and will report to you. Sideswipe out. "

Scavenger looked through the crowd of citizens that were currently doing their pleasure or daily shopping, "We should split up..." he said, "We'll be able to cover more ground that way." He pointed towards an area filled with holo-screens surrounding the spot, "That's where the stock marketers meet every day for pay day..." He looked back at the group. "Swipes already has it on camera, so if you guys get close make sure to keep the identities on the down low. We could be spotted by authorities, they don't like non-members entering that area."

"As if they'd see us," GunGlue muttered, rotors twitching. VolFogg nodded his agreement, looking at the screens and the crowd around them with the experienced eye of an intelligence agent.

It was a few hours later before they contacted each other. Though for both parties it seemed there was little luck.

Scavenger comn in on VolFogg, "Ninjabot, find anything yet?" his voice sounded irritated.

VolFogg was perched on a cable stretching between two buildings, watching the streets below. "That would be a negative, Scavenger. Nothing yet." GunGlue and GunDober echoed the negative, moving to find new places to watch from.

Scavenger sneered, "You might wanna check the streets, according to the reports this bounty head femme is a professional at blending in..." He was walking down a narrow street. "Just make sure not to attract attention to yourself ninja boy..."

"I am under full camouflage; only one who knows exactly what to look for and how could see me," was the retort. "As we are complete unknowns here, it is highly unlikely anyone will be able to spot me." VolFogg eased along the cable, leaping off and darting along the side of a building to a new perch. "The twins are also on the lookout. We are mobile."

Scavenger nodded. "All right," he answered. "Be careful though," There was a response on the other end.

VolFogg hopped to a few other buildings before arriving to a town-square where all sorts of market shops circled the area. He looked around, nothing out of the ordinary yet... that was until he spotted a familiar femme by the pottery shop...

The twins grumbled in unison as the purple mech dropped down to perch on the roof of the shop, still camouflaged, and looked down at her. GunGlue flew past overhead, blasting VolFogg with rotor wash before swerving up and away again, disappearing in a moment. VolFogg glared after the heli-mech, then looked back down at Mosa.

Mosa herself was looking over a well-crafted vase that glistened with black pearls in the sunlight. She smiled, picked it up and paid the fee then headed off to the next shop. She hummed a tune or two, walking in red and purple armor-outfit with red-heeled armored feet. Her synthetic hair waved through the air as she walked down the street.

VolFogg followed on the roof, watching the femme before leaping silently to the ground, in an alley, and dropping his camouflage. He walked out of the alley, following Mosa, moving through the crowd so easily that no one really noticed him.

Mosa had stopped by a jewelry shop, looking over the types of necklaces, rings, and such. She had her optics on a certain ruby-red stone-encrusted necklace; "Oh that one should be perfect..." she turned around to talk to the clerk when her optics fell upon the sight of the purple ninja bot. She blinked. "VolFogg...?" she asked.

The ninja mech smiled slightly. "I was passing through when I saw you, and decided to drop by..." He heard a hiss from off to one side, but refrained from looking over at the hisser. "My companions, I do believe, are not happy about it, though."

Mosa blinked. "Oh, that's too bad..." she smiled sadly, "So what brings you here to the market? I don't know if there might be anything here that a ninja mech yourself might like..." She found herself trying on the necklace, looking at herself in a mirror and at the same time looking at VolFogg.

"Curiosity," he replied calmly, not wanting to tell her what he was really doing. "The Ambassador will be here for some time yet, so I took the opportunity to explore a bit. I do in all the places we visit." He stepped forward, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

Mosa smiled, fixing her hair so he could see the necklace better. "What do you think?"

VolFogg blinked. "It looks fine."

"So VolFogg picking up chicks?" Prime's voice snickered over the comnlink.

Two pairs of optics glared at the larger mech over the comn system. "He's ours," GunGlue hissed in response. "Not hers. We know him the best, have known him the longest... he protected us when GGG dragged us in to be shut down."

GunDober's engine growled. "And something doesn't feel right about her," he finished.

Mosa smiled happily. "Thank you..." She looked up at the ninja bot, "You know you should wear that nice little scarf that you were wearing last night more often..." She paid for the necklace and began walking down the street, VolFogg by her side. "It makes you look...handsome."

Both flinched, looking away, and GunGlue's rotors let out a faint whir. "He's our team leader..." GunDober pointed out faintly. "He's ours and we are his... We are one." The bike mech looked uncertain.

VolFogg blinked, a blush crossing his face, there and gone again. "That was a gift from GunGlue... it would have made me stand out too much. Today I would prefer to go unnoticed."

Mosa nodded. "I see, the quiet type..." She smiled once more, walking in her own steps along the street. She hummed a tune again. "VolFogg, I was wondering..." she looked back at the purple ninja, "Would you like to meet me for dinner tonight?"

"Keep an optic out; we are still on a mission you know... " Prime spoke to the twins, noting the venomous tones.

The twins; still more than a little miserable, nodded, flitting out of sight, following their team leader. They still resented the femme's intrusion, but under it their instincts were telling them that she wasn't what she seemed. So they followed, keeping out of sight and watching closely.

"In my line of work, it is better to go unnoticed than to stand out," VolFogg commented, looking over at Mosa

Mosa nodded. "I see..." she sighed, "Well, maybe its best. You have your job and I have mine..." she smiled, "However I wish mine was more eventful..." She trotted along side VolFogg, her bags of goodies swaying this way and that in her hands.

"Eventfulness can be a bad thing," the ninja pointed out. "There are times when I wish for nothing more than a little peace and quiet." He smiled slightly. "A slow day is a blessing in my job."

Mosa chuckled. "Sounds like you work too much..." She checked her internal clock and sighed. "It would seem I have to go attend a little business..." Her voice sounded annoyed, she didn't want to work at this hour; Mosa looked back at VolFogg and smiled softly, "It was nice seeing you again.." She leaned into his face, seemingly about to kiss him when she suddenly poked his nose and waved goodbye, "See you again sometime!"

"I have movement!" Sideswipe's voice was shouting over the link, "Three shots fired!"

VolFogg watched Mosa walk away, not knowing how to respond. Once she was out of sight, he stepped into an alley, camouflaging himself and returning to the high roads to continue his search. What he heard Sideswipe on the comm, he made a beeline for the scene, the twins falling in behind him. He had a moment to note their uncharacteristic silence and glance at them curiously before they reached the scene.

The stock-market area was chaos; people were running, screaming for their lives as they flew from a group of dead bodies lying in a puddle of blood or energon on the floor. Scavenger and Prime had somehow arrived to the scene first, the older mech growled, "She got them..." he muttered, "She got them and stole their tickets, and we had a surveillance around the whole damn block."

"And no one saw anything, am I right?" VolFogg stood atop one of the monitors, checking all entry and exit points for any sign of where the shooter could have been. The twins, still unusually quiet, were searching the high and low points for recent activity.

Scavenger shook his head, "Not one damn witness..." he growled once more, heading back down the street, "Let's go, we can't do anything else more here..."

Prime looked back at Scavenger then back at the bodies that laid dead on the floor, he sighed and followed the older mech back to the ship.


	24. A Charming Visit

Chapter 24 ~ "A Charming Visit"

VolFogg was moving from the monitor he was perched on to the wall of the building, then out a window. Balancing on the edge, he scanned the area, and then was moving to follow the others when he spotted something from the corner of his optic.

He had spotted Mosa running down an alley way hurriedly, a few seconds later there was a mech following her at the same pace and he seemed to be holding something. Mosa ran through the streets, over a bridge and through the shops to avoid the mech that was chasing her, no luck.

The ninja mech was moving an instant later, darting along the rooftops, paralleling their path. He was moving too quickly to be seen by any casual spectator, catching up to them in short order. Slowing to match them, he looked down at them, narrowed optics watching every move the other mech made.

A bolt of purple descended from above, landing between the mech and the femme. One hard kick sent the mech into a wall; he collapsed in a stunned heap. Then purple was flashing upward again, taking the femme along with him. VolFogg touched down neatly, darting across the roof and over several more before stopping.

Mosa was in awe when VolFogg finally touched down, she looked up at him as he lifted her down and allowed her to stand. "Wow... that's the second time you've saved me..." She smiled. "And quite a fighting style, think you could tech me a few of your tricks?"

"To learn my tricks would take a long time," he responded. He glanced back, then began walking along the roof, waving for her to follow while he searched for a discreet spot to descend back to street level. "Who was that?"

Mosa rubbed her arm, "He was..." her optics took sudden interest into the ground below, "He was my ex... he's still angry that I left him." She sighed, scratching the back of her neck and ruffling her hair. "He's got a history of mental problems..." She smirked at the thought, "I still wonder how I ended up with him in the first place."

VolFogg tilted his head, and then finally found a place. "Here." He wrapped his arm around her waist, stepping off the edge of the roof. His thrusters kicked in, lowering them gently to the ground.

Mosa laughed, "That was very gentlemen-like," she looked down with her sapphire optics, "Thank you, I wish I could do something for you in re-" The sound of thunder boomed through the air, and droplets of green rain began to fall onto the streets of Solstice. Mosa cringed. "Oh no!" she quickly grabbed VolFogg's hand. "Let's go to my place, I'm pretty sure it's not too far from here..."

VolFogg flinched ever so slightly at the crack of thunder from overhead. He let himself be pulled along behind her, looking up at the sky. "I normally don't mind rain... except when I'm up to my fenders in it."

Mosa smiled. "Well too much of the rain here can get deadly..." They were approaching a small apartment complex. "It can turn from soft harmless rain to acid rain in mere seconds..." They reached the door, and Mosa opened it with her card-key. There was beep and the door swished open, allowing them inside; Mosa shook her hair and her boots then headed up the stairs to her apartment.

"I have yet to experience acid rain." VolFogg looked around as he was led inside. "Though the name alone does not sound pleasant at all. Not an experience I'm in any hurry to have."

"Trust me..." she shook her hair again, opening the door to apartment and letting him inside. "It's a horrible experience..." Her apartment wasn't particularly clean, but it wasn't messy either, it reflected a sort of oriental theme. There were only two bedrooms to her apartment, plus a wash-room, living room, and kitchen; all full of dark red furniture, a small holo-vid in the living room, and pleasant bed in her bedroom.

"I'll take your word for it." VolFogg looked around, curious. He had never been near a female robot before, much less in a female's quarters. "Hmm. Interesting residence. I've never had a place like this, much less been in one."

Mosa put down her things on the kitchen table, pulling out a towel and handing it to VolFogg. "Then you must need some decorative work..." She smiled, wiping down her armor. "So... would you like a drink? I can make some warm energon if you like, it'll do wonders for relaxation.

"I live on a ship. We don't have this much room." VolFogg quickly toweled off, getting the water off his armor before it left streaks in his paint. Somehow he doubted the twins would be very willing to help him with the touchup work once he got back to the ship. "That would be nice; thank you."

Mosa smiled, then went to the stove and boiled up some energon. Moments later she hand VolFogg a cup of steaming energon. "Its solstice-nut flavored, hope you like it..." She took a sip of her energon and looked back up at VolFogg. "So living on ship? Must get stir-crazy from all the crowded space."

"We get out enough." VolFogg carefully sipped at the drink, raising an optic rim at the taste. "That's a different taste... like nothing I've ever encountered before." He took another sip. "There are quite a few of us on board, so eventually we do get fed up with each other, and then we have to get out." He wasn't about to tell her what his real job was.

Mosa led VolFogg into the living room, placing her cup on the small table in front of the couch. "Is the Ambassador a pain?" She laughed. "I know my boss is..." She crossed her legs as she leaned against the soft pillows of the couch.

"At times... or when someone forgets to lock up the high grade." The ninja mech settled into a chair, holding his cup in one hand and looking around at the decor. "A most interesting environment."

Mosa smiled, closing her optics. "I like a relaxed surrounding..." she said smoothly, "It makes you feel warm and at home..." She opened her optics again, staring at the ceiling. "So may I ask..." she didn't turn away from the ceiling, "Why didn't you REALLY want to have a drink with me when I asked the other night?"

He shifted. "I really don't have an excuse... other than forgetting completely. Things have been... more than a little hectic for us lately. It has not been an easy time for us, and it has left its mark on some of my comrades."

Mosa looked to VolFogg, smiling sadly. "A bad incident..." she said softly, and nodded. "I understand." She stood up and stretched, looking outside and seeing as the rain didn't stop yet, she sighed and walked over to VolFogg, looking over his features. "You have nice lips..." she said, "Did you know that?"

VolFogg blinked rapidly, his faceplate coloring slightly. "Uhm... no one has ever said that to me before." He shifted slightly, embarrassed, not knowing how to take it.

Mosa smiled, laughing. "Well I don't see why not, you are very handsome after all..." She leaned down and brought a hand to his face, looking into his optics softly. She saw terror, fear, pain and hurt, she blinked and her shoulders slacked somewhat. "You've really been through a lot haven't you?"

The ninja nodded slowly. "Betrayal by those we considered as close as family... rescue seconds before being killed... tortured... in pain... Yes, we have been through a hell of a lot. It has left its scars on all of us; none of us has escaped it. Some of us are more deeply scarred than others."

Mosa stroked his face softly; looking into his face once more. "I can relate..." she said softly, her thumb accidentally rubbing over VolFogg's lips. She flinched and brought her hand away, blushing. "Sorry..."

VolFogg's body quivered slightly at the touch, but he didn't pull away. His fuel pump skipped a beat. "We have all undergone great trauma in our pasts. That's life. Some have just had it worse than others."

Mosa blinked, nodding. "Very true..." She sighed. "But that doesn't stop the demons from coming back..." She blinked again, looking back up at VolFogg to find the same sight, the purple mech glistening in the light of her living room. She leaned into him, bringing her hand up once more and placed it over his hand that was holding the cup of energon. "Did you ever love any of the friends that...betrayed you?"

"Not any of them, no," he replied softly, looking down. "The only one I ever really cared for wasn't there. He would never have let them do what they almost did to us. He didn't even know what they were doing... I hope some day to see him again, let him know that I am still alive." He blinked slightly, unconsciously leaning against the femme.

Mosa smiled, feeling the warmth of VolFogg's body and she stroked his hand. "Maybe one day you'll get your chance..." she whispered, her head coming face-to-face with VolFogg's. She looked into his optics; she blinked once more and leaned in closer to his face, their lips almost touching...

"I hope so..." he began, turning toward her. She was closer than he'd thought, so when he turned his head, his lips met hers, and his train of thought promptly stuttered to a halt.

Mosa was a bit taken back when it was actually HIM kissing HER, she blinked her optics at the touch of his lips then let her shoulders slack and closed her optics. She didn't let go and moved in more on the kiss, her hand placed on his free forearm.

VolFogg reacted automatically, moving ever so slightly closer, very cautiously deepening as they kissed. The hesitation he displayed showed that he wasn't sure he was doing it correctly; he was still young and had never been in this kind of situation before.

Mosa smiled, stroking his arms as she pulled away from the kiss. "Out of practice?" she said playfully. "Or is this really your first time?"

"First time," he managed to reply, blinking. "Where I come from, there were no female robots... and we were busy most of the time. All of my comrades are mechs."

Mosa smirked. "Kinky..." she laughed while bringing her hand up to stroke his face. "Don't worry, I'll show you the ropes..." She leaned in and kissed him again, stroking his arms to the point that the cup fell from his hand and spilled energon all over the floor.

VolFogg jumped as the cup hit the floor, but managed to avoid breaking the kiss. There was a strange feeling in his chest as his body reacted to the touch of the female, and his internal temperature began to creep higher. It felt good.

Mosa smiled, rubbing a hand over his shoulder as he jumped, she giggled and kissed him fully for a few more moments before breaking the kiss, "How about we take this somewhere a little more comfortable..." She bit her bottom lip, hiding a playful smile.

VolFogg blinked rapidly, his train of thought having already crashed and burned. "Uhhh..." was the most intelligent thing he could get out.

Mosa giggled at the look of VolFogg's face, she grabbed his arms gently and pulled him up from the chair. She slowly led him towards her bedroom, inside and settled him on the bed as she went back to close the door. Mosa ruffled her hair once more, smiling at him.

VolFogg allowed himself to be led, his own thoughts chasing themselves in circles and gibbering madly. He sank down onto the bed, watching the female as she closed the door and then came back over. He was feeling hot under his armor, and there was a strange sensation in his lower body, something he'd never felt before.

Mosa walked over to him, placing both hands on his shoulders and kissing him fully. "First thing about doing this..." she smiled, "Would probably be removing your armor first..." She smirked playfully down at him.

VolFogg blinked at her. "Uhhhh... wha...?" He squirmed slightly, looking down at himself, wondering just where that feeling was coming from.

Mosa laughed. "By Primus this really is your first time..." She sat down on the bed next to him, and slowly but gently laid him down on the bed. She crawled over him, her hands by his shoulders as she leaned over him; she allowed her hands to wander over every piece of armor he had. Until she reached down to his codpiece, looking for the latch...

"I said it was..." The ninja blinked at her, making a curious sound as she put him down onto the bed. A hiss escaped him as her hands ran over his armor. His CPU struggled to digest what he was feeling.

Mosa grinned mischievously when finally coming upon the latch to his codpiece, as well as to the entire armor that covered his aft as well. Her faced blushed once removing it and placing it on the floor. "Nice..." she giggled, looking up to VolFogg.

VolFogg blinked at her, optics widening as she removed his armor and he got his first look at what the source of the strange sensation was. He stared at it for a full minute before shaking his head and finally looking back to Mosa.

Mosa was biting down on her finger at the sight of his interface. "For a bot like yourself, you're pretty well sized..." She pulled her finger out her mouth and went to remove her own armor. She threw the discarded armor on the floor and ruffled her hair again.

VolFogg's optics went wide, and his jaw worked soundlessly as he watched her. A few squeaking sounds escaped his vocal circuitry before they flatly refused to cooperate, and he fell completely silent.

Mosa giggled, stroking his face softly. "Take it easy..." she smiled. "I'll go slow since this is your first time..." She leaned down and kissed him, her body against his; it was quite obvious who was going to be on top tonight. She traced circled on his chest, looking into his optics passionately...

The sensors under his armor lit up, relaying her touch very acutely. VolFogg's entire body twitched as he tried to handle the input. His optics flickered, and then steadied, and the heat under his remaining armor increased.

Mosa could feel the heat emanating from his body. "Are you all right?" she asked worriedly, "I'm not scaring you am I?" She sat up somewhat to give him room.

"I've just... never been in a situation like this before." His voice was slightly higher than usual, and tended to squeak on some syllables. "I have no idea how I should be reacting..."

Mosa smiled fondly. "First rule is to relax..." She stroked his chest, "Let go of all the stress and allow your body to breathe..." She leaned down once more and kissed, still stroking his chest when her own was clearly connecting his armor.

The purple mech drew in a deep breath as more sensors lit under his armor. Never before had he been touched like that, and it felt good, so good... Before he knew what was happening his own hands were coming up, stroking lightly over her back, carefully.

Mosa nodded. "That's it..." she breathed, "Nice and slow..." She kissed him, she kissed his cheeks, his lips, his neck, all the while feeling his hand upon her back. She let her hands wander down to his interface, touching it softly, "Do you mind?"

The ninja's back arched as her hands touched him there, and he let out a long hiss. His optics were only half lit, and he was twitching ever so slightly under her. Light fingers stroked across her back, soundlessly urging her on.

Mosa nodded and stroked his interface softly, each finger going over and tracing its shape. She breathed, allowing herself to lean her head against his as she stroked him. "I hope this isn't too much for you..."

"Don't... stop..." he managed to rasp out, very faintly. This was a completely new experience for him, and it felt good, better than anything he'd ever felt before. His overloaded CPU had decided to stop trying to make sense of the new sensations and was just going along with it.

Mosa smiled and stroked him further, this time a little faster then before and she watched his reactions. It wasn't until she shifted her body so that she was positioned over his interface, still rubbing it thoroughly. "I'm going to start now..." she whispered softly into his audio, "Relax all right?"

Not trusting his vocal circuitry not to produce another high-pitched squeak, VolFogg only nodded. His body was still twitching, leaning into her hands.

Mosa nodded, got her own body ready once more and sunk down onto his interface. Her face was in a grimace at first, turning red until she felt herself comfortable on the spot; it wasn't long till her body began to move to a rhythm. Her hands were placed on his chest, clenched into fist.

VolFogg let out a soft sound of surprise, staring at her. Then how GOOD it felt registered with him. What was left of his CPU promptly dissolved into mush, and his hips moved without any conscious direction from his brain unit. His hands clenched into fists, and an odd grunt escaped him.

Mosa panted him, hips moving against his as she felt his breath against her face. She smiled up at him, kissing him once more after hearing a grunt emanate from his vocal processor. "Almost..." she winced, "almost there...." She moved her hips faster, much more than she expected.

A strange feeling was growing at the base of his interface, puzzling him yet again. He blinked, trying to focus, but rational thought eluded him. His body arched into hers, moving faster.

"Yeah that's it!" She arched and moaned, her body moving faster and faster until she felt her climax. She came, feeling the white sticky liquid splattering the inside of her thighs and she smiled up to VolFogg.

The ninja mech's back arched strongly, and that strange feeling suddenly burst inside him, rushing up his interface and out. He let out a sharp cry, optics going completely dark for a long moment, and then he collapsed back onto the bed, shudders running through his body.

Mosa stroked his face softly. "Take a rest VolFogg..." she smiled and pressed against his body when she lifted herself off him and lay by his side. She curled up next to him, optics looking at him sadly before closing, and she slowing drifted off into recharge.

VolFogg was already half gone, and probably hadn't heard a word she said. His optics flickered a couple of times, and then went out again, and he dropped into recharge.


	25. The Next Morning

Chapter 25 ~ "The Next Morning…"

The next morning came quickly, Mosa had already gotten up from the bed, cleaned up, and dressed; she placed a thick thermo blanket over VolFogg, just in case. She sat by the bed at her desk, a mug of energon by her as she worked on her monitor, working on whatever information she had.

A couple of hours later, VolFogg finally stirred. Muttering softly to himself, he activated his optics, blinking and reaching up to rub them. Blearily, he raised his head, looking around. It took a moment for him to remember where he was and what had happened the previous night.

Mosa looked up from her monitor, smirking. "Well look who's up..." She took a sip of her energon. "How are you feeling?"

"Strange." VolFogg sat up, noting that his armor was still missing and looking around for it. "That was... a most interesting evening." He looked at her again. "And you?"

"A bit relaxed myself..." she giggled, "That was fun... you did good for your first time." She had pulled a second cup of energon up and gave it to VolFogg, then sat down next to him, "Your armor is..." she looked on the floor, "Ah, here we are..." She picked it up and gave it the purple bot.

"Thank you." He sipped at the energon, taking his armor and reattaching it. "I guess that was a compliment... thanks." He smiled slightly, finishing the energon. Checking his chronometer, he blinked. "I should be getting back to the others..."

Mosa blinked, then laughed. "Oh right, I forgot that your friends would be missing you now wouldn't they..." She scratched the back of her head, then stood up. "The Ambassador must be missing his right hand ninja right?" She smiled and led him to the front door.

VolFogg chuckled. "Something like that... and then there's my teammates, who are not going to be happy about this." He smiled again, a fuller smile, then stepped outside and transformed to his police car mode. Flashing his lights to her once, he sped off, heading back to the ship.

Mosa waved goodbye, hugging her arms and looking warmly in his direction as she leaned against the doorframe; she sighed then went back up into her apartment.

Meanwhile...

Scavenger looked at the doorway, seeing the door swish open and the purple ninja bot walk in. The older mech growled, "And just where the hell have you been?" he sneered.

"Out," was all the ninja mech would say, "I ran into Mosa again, and we went to her residence to wait out the rain." He tilted his head, hearing two pairs of footsteps coming in his direction.

Scavenger looked at the purple ninja bot, "Did you at least get any leads on our bounty head?" he grumbled.

"Unfortunately, I didn't... I was looking for traces when I ran into her and the rain started." VolFogg braced himself as two streaks of black-and-white appeared out of nowhere, pouncing on him with identical shrieks. A moment later, the twins disappeared again, taking their team leader with them, scolding at the top of their lungs.

RaiRyu looked after the twins and VolFogg from his place in the living room, "Where was he all night?" he looked over to his twin, who was playing video games with HyoRyu as EnRyu watched.

The green twin shrugged his shoulders, "Not sure..." he clicked at the controls, "Maybe he found the bounty head..."

****************

VolFogg found himself being bodily dragged back to his quarters, being scolded the whole time by the twins. He tried to get his feet under him again, but they sped up just enough to keep him off balance. It was clear they were Not Happy with him at the moment. Once they reached his quarters, he was tossed onto his berth, sat on, and then thoroughly interrogated.

VolFogg squirmed, but the twins were determined that they were not moving. Twin green glares burned into his wide optics. They were seriously angry with him. And that meant they probably weren't going to let him out of their sight for the foreseeable future.

He was (somehow) able to get away from the twins, allowing himself to freedom for the rest of the night.

****************

Around two days went by, and Scavenger's plans were getting poor results; they tried the high-star restaurants, they tried the parks and the neighborhoods in uptown, but still no luck. However, VolFogg was having quite the opposite...

VolFogg kept managing to sneak off to see Mosa, though losing his twin shadows was next to impossible. They always found him again, glowering at him and hissing at the femme. Usually he managed to keep them at bay until after he and Mosa parted company, though on several occasions they found him right in the middle of it.

Optimus was lying back on his berth, reading over a rather adulterated magazine when her heard his door swish open. Scavenger walked in with RaiRyu in tow, the younger mech looking at the blue and silver bot curiously.

Scavenger smacked his forehead. "You idiot put that away..." He was covering RaiRyu's optics.

Prime had adjusted himself and put his 'special' magazine away, sitting up on his berth, "What is it?" he asked looking at RaiRyu.

Scavenger rubbed a hand on RaiRyu's head. "Sparky here wanted to ask you something..." He nudged RaiRyu who was clutching to his dragon.

RaiRyu curled into himself. "Could I... um... Could I come with you guys when you head out for another hunt?"

Prime blinked, his optics narrowing, "No…" he said sternly, "Absolutely not."

Scavenger scratched the back of his head. "Prime, he maybe young but he's mature enough to fight on his own..." He looked Prime straight into the optics. "You said it yourself when we were on that frozen waste land of a planet, he was able to fry that bounty head." He patted a very disappointed RaiRyu. "Even through all the trauma he went through he's still able to at least fend for himself."

"And he's part of a combiner, don't forget," Goldymarg commented as he walked past, trying to keep his massive shoulders from scraping the walls. "I have fought alongside GekiRyuJin, and he is a formidable fighter. RaiRyu and FuuRyu together are a force to be reckoned with. Nowhere near my level, of course, but highly formidable."

The blue and silver bot looked between the massive orange bot and the elder mech looking down at him. He sighed, golden optics opening to look at RaiRyu, "All right," he said defeated, "You can go…"

RaiRyu smiled. "This is great! FuuRyu is gonna be so psyched!" He hugged Prime warmly. "Thank you Optimus!" He then left the room with Scavenger closing the door to Prime's room.

Scavenger grinned down on the yellow bot. "See, I told you it would work..." He chuckled. "Prime's a sucker for younglings..." RaiRyu snickered, heading to the common room to tell his brother the news.

Optimus sat down and huffed, giving the elder mech a flat look as he sat practically defeated on his berth. "You slick bastard…" he grumbled, staring at the elder mech. He soon heard another set of footsteps enter the room…

Prime's optics twitched as he felt the bubbly blue bot wrap his arms around him, "Swipes..." he darted his optics down to younger bot, "What are you doing?"

Sideswipe smiled cheekily, "I think somebody needs a hug!"

He felt Sideswipe squeeze harder and Prime had to pry him off and dart out of the room before the blue bot could catch him, "By Primus how Hot Shot lived with this I have no idea!"

Meanwhile…

VolFogg was undergoing yet another ear-blistering scolding from GunDober and GunGlue, and they were forcing him to take a disinfectant bath. Which consisted of them holding him down, peeling off every piece of armor in reach, and applying brushes to his entire frame. He'd already given up trying to get away; he'd already discovered that it was impossible.

"Are you two about done?" VolFogg groaned, looking over his shoulder at GunGlue and GunDober. They eyed him for a moment, then nodded, and he dragged himself out of the bath, standing on wobbly legs, almost falling over from exhaustion. The twins had to practically carry him back to his quarters, ignoring the smirk from Goldymarg.

GunGlue ducked out of the way just as the two darted past, shaking his head. He looked at his twin over VolFogg's helm, both of them rolling their optics in unison. They maneuvered the purple mech into his quarters and lifted him onto the berth, curling up on either side of him and draping their arms across his back.

Just before VolFogg could shut down his optics, he received a text message from a familiar femme. It said, "Think you could meet me tonight ninja boy?" XO added at the ended with her love.

VolFogg could barely keep his optics open, he was so exhausted, and the twins were seeing to it that he wasn't going to move anytime soon. He was forced to send an apology just before his exhaustion finally caught up with him, and he passed out.

Another two days had passed, still no such luck. Even bringing FuuRyu and RaiRyu along, they couldn't find anything close to capturing the female bounty head, and all the while VolFogg's visits became more frequent.

Mosa tapped a finger on the purple bot's chest, they were lying in bed after one of their "rounds", she smiled, "I hope I'm not making you any trouble with your teammates..."

VolFogg snorted. "They are not happy about this at all. Though I am not absolutely certain why. It might be because we are the three parts of a combiner. Or it might be for some other reason entirely."

Mosa was lying against VolFogg. "I hope they don't think ill of me..." she said softly, "I don't mean any harm... well your interface has been through some stuff so I don't know about that..." She grinned playfully.

VolFogg had turned off his comnlink, not wanting to have the GunMachine twins screaming his audios off whenever he was out. He looked at Mosa curiously. "They're not really talking... they've fallen back on their own language for the moment. But they're not happy about me being here."


	26. The Truth Hurts

Chapter 26 ~ "The Truth hurts…"

Scavenger had looked up at the monitor grimly when Sideswipe had put up the visual he had found from a security camera from way back in the stock market attack. He sighed. "This isn't good…" He looked back at Megatron, who sat in a chair with EnRyu and HyoRyu by his side, his red optics were narrowed, his face in a deep frown when Prime came in...

"That's VolFogg's girlfriend…" Prime gawked, "She's the shooter?! "

"Unfortunately," came Megatron's reply in his low voice.

Scavenger was tapping his chin. "This is bad..." he looked over at the GunMachines, who were, as were expected, furious over the whole deal.

Megatron blinked his optics. "How are we going to tell him?" He looked up to Scavenger.

The older mech just sighed and pinched the bridge of this nose. "We can't, that's the problem..." His voice was low. "He would never believe us if we told him the truth..."

GunGlue and GunDober hissed. "We knew something wasn't right about her," the tiger-helmed mech announced flatly. "And you're right... he won't believe unless he sees for himself. Try to tell him, even if you insist, he will refuse to believe."

Optimus sat down in his chair. "The poor kid..." he sighed, "It's going to break him…" He didn't even went to think of the rage that may erupt from the smaller ninja bot, "I almost don't want to tell him…" his golden optics looked up to Scavenger, finding his face saddened, "No…"

Scavenger shook his head. "You heard the twins, Prime..." He looked back up to the screen of the monitor. "Let the kid figure it out for himself. We have an idea where she's gonna hit next..."

****************

Mosa stroked VolFogg's arms, kissing him warmly. "It's getting late..." She kissed him again. "Your friends will be worried about you, and I don't want to get you into anymore trouble with your boss."

Reluctantly, the purple mech pushed himself up, heading for the window. "Yes, I'd better be getting back..." He hopped up onto the window frame, looking back to her one more time, then pushed off and vanished, moving so fast he was only a blur.

****************

Scavenger looked to the door when VolFogg entered, the GunMachines next to him as he stood near Sideswipe as the blue bot was going through some blueprints. Scavenger was smoking his pipe. "We've found her..." he said sternly, yellow optics darting at him, "And we've have a good idea where she's gonna hit next..." That was Sideswipe's cue to pull up a blueprint of a large estate.

VolFogg looked over at the GunMachines warily. Oddly enough, they only looked back at him, not uttering so much as a sound. The purple mech blinked in surprise, then turned his attention back to Scavenger. "So we know where she's going to hit next... what plans do we have to catch her?"

"Well it's more she'll be somewhere high; we know she's fast. So it will be up to you to... We'll you know." Sideswipe mumbled out.

Scavenger smoked on his pipe, blowing out a puff of smoke and motioned Sideswipe to pull up the address where the bounty head might hit. He pulled up an image of an estate. "This is the High Waters Estate, richest bastard in Solstice and pretty much guarded heavily..." He blew another puff of smoke, "However our bounty head is much more advanced than what he's got..."

VolFogg nodded, looking over the information. "The twins and I are taking the high road again, I assume," he commented, meaning the roofs and sides of the buildings, where the ninja team usually operated.

Scavenger shook his head. "Not going to work with this femme..." He had Sideswipe pull up another blueprint, "We've found that she was able to get her attacks done quickly by going underground and coming up." Scavenger looked back at the ninja team. "Prime and I will take care of the topside, you and the wonder twins over there take the underground sewer system, you should end up in the generator room under the estate."

The Gun Robots snorted at being referred to as the wonder twins, nodding to show that they accepted the assignment. VolFogg leaned forward to take a closer look at the diagram, optics narrowing as he traced over the routes.

Scavenger nodded, "So we got it all down?" He saw the mechs before him nod. "Good... we leave later tonight..."

That had came sooner then expected...

Prime and Scavenger were at the gate of the estate, the older mech acting out his 'Ambassador' gimmick, as Prime was the well and ever-loyal assistant. As they were led inside the estate by a servant, the ninja bots were given the go to head underground.

The three were a quick blur of movement, zipping into the underground tunnels. They stayed in the shadows, picking up and placing each foot carefully so as to make as little noise as possible. Their optics were barely lit as they moved through the darkness, closing in on their objective.

There was movement, silent but deadly movement through the tunnels of the underground. She shifted, bounced off the walls, blending into the darkness with her black armor; her optics blazing blue as she wielded her weapon upon entering the underground of the estate. Everything was set, her entrance, her kill, and her precious profit afterwards...

VolFogg's sensors registered the movement, and he closed in on it, slipping through the shadows as if he were one himself. His dark paint blended in, and the way he moved hid the white on his legs and arms. The twins moved with him, spreading out in a flanking maneuver. Anyone attempting to escape them would run right into VolFogg.

She looked between two small beams of light peeping through the holes of a manhole; silently she climbed up the ladder and threw a sensor onto the surface of the generator room. The sensor read that no life forms were present; she smiled with a grin, perfect. She pushed through the manhole, slipped into the generator room, pulling out a few small bombs, she went to place them at the beams of the generator room, for when she makes her hastily exit, the place will go boom! She tapped in the timer, approximately 30 minutes, that's just enough time...

The twins moved in, picking up speed. They were to herd her toward VolFogg for capture. Their sensors registered the explosives, and they surged forward, spreading out to form the wings of the trap.

She went for the door to the upstairs; it SHOULD take her to the backroom of the kitchen. She smirked and was about to head up the stairs when...

Light burst out of the darkness, a shape hurtling toward her with a fierce shriek. Sparks flew as the other robot plowed into her, sending her rolling back into the tunnel. A second robot appeared from the opposite direction, twin gun barrels glittering in the glow of his headlights. They had her blocked in.

"Damnit..." she whispered, maroon hair wavy from side to side as she noticed the twin robots closing in on her. She pulled over her twin blade-edged chains, twirled them around like a whip and crackled them against the tunnel walls. "Come and get me boys..." she grinned

Two pairs of green optics glowed in the darkness. They both had their lights on, gleaming off black and white metal, hawk wings and tiger's ears. They held their positions, glaring at her, torso-mounted chain gun barrels glittering wickedly.

"Stay right where you are!" a sharp, very familiar voice cracked from behind her, accompanied by the sound of a rifle readied to fire.

Her optics widened, that voice... She had let down her chains a little, her head tilted to the side with her hair swaying along with her neck. Her blue optics gazed upon the sight of purple and dark armor as she turned around ever so slowly. She looked shocked when seeing his face, her optics almost gleaming the expression of hurt. "Vol...." she whispered, "VolFogg...?"

The ninja mech froze, though the aim of his weapon never budged. Pink optics went wide with utter shock as he stared at her. "Mosa... what...? What are you...?"

"VolFogg..." she stammered. "I..." She felt her shoulders jerk somewhat as she shook with realization. She stood her ground, her black armor gleaming against the headlights of the twins, her optics were closed with pain. "VolFogg..." she whispered once more, gripping her chains. "I'm sorry..." With that she changed stance and twirled chains with high speed, attacking the purple ninja.

He snapped out of his paralysis, discarding the rifle and pulling out his familiar twin boomerangs. Sparks flew as the weapons collided, and still-stunned optics locked with hers. "The assassin who's killed so many... the killer femme... it was you all along?!"

She didn't answer right away, just swirled her chains at him again and again, colliding with the boomerangs. She gritted her teeth. "What did you expect me to say?!" She threw another whirl. "I couldn't let you know the truth!" She threw her chains once more, able to get them around his body and hold him tightly, she came up to him face-to-face, "And what about you? What are YOU doing here??"

VolFogg gritted his dental plates. "I... am a bounty hunter!" He threw his full weight against her, slamming her into the wall. A twist of his body, and he managed to get out of the chains, though they left visible, deep scratches in his armor. "And you... are the prey we are here after!"

She stared at him in shock, and then brought her legs together for a dual kick that sent him across the room. She growled, flipping her chains. "You and the rest of the slaggin' universe...." She twirled her chains once more. "Oh and I have to thank you again..." she sent her chains at him, "for saving me from that pathetic bounty hunter from before!"


	27. Lost Love

Chapter 27 ~ "Lost Love"

The purple mech let out a pained grunt as he hit the wall. He landed in a crouch, optics flaring. For the barest instant he remained still, then he was moving again. "Silver Moon!" His boomerangs glittered with the Mirror Coating, and a sharp snap of the wrists sent them right at her.

Mosa had to jump to the ceiling in order to avoid the attack, damnit she was wasting time with him. She gritted her teeth, swiping her chains at VolFogg for a more direct attack, her time was counting down quickly, '17 minutes...'

VolFogg caught the returning blades, combining them into a huge shuriken. "Silver Cross!" The glittering throwing star arced right at her.

Her optics were wide as the large shuriken was able to hit the space of the ceiling next to her, crumbling the metal rock and sending her to the floor. She landed on her back, her body shook somewhat as she slowly got up from the ground and to her feet. She glared at VolFogg and retrieved her chains, twirling them around until she activated the sharp edges, expanding them to larger blades.

The ninja snarled to himself, his gaze flicking toward the silent, watching twins. Then he sprang forward. "Sanmiitai!"

Mosa didn't move from her spot, twirling her chains as the three ninja bots became one. She twitched an optics ridge and sent her chains towards the now larger ninja bot, hoping that the enlarged blades were leaving some damage. The timer to the explosives continued to count down '11 minutes...'

"Murasame Sword!" The rotors on Big VolFogg's left arm lit up with the Mirror Coating, blocking her blades and actually taking a chunk out of one. Twisting his arm, he sliced right through one chain, and then brought his right arm around. "4000 Magnum!"

Mosa had to jump and land on all fours on the ground, she snarled, "Coward! Can't even fight me on your own?" she threw her other chain at the larger robot's face, "Come out and fight me!" She threw it again in her form of blind rage, "FIGHT. ME!!!"

A swipe of the Murasame Sword shattered the chain, sending shattered links across the floor. Big VolFogg blazed silver with the Mirror Coating. "Chou Bunshin Sappou!" (Divide and Conquer) The large mech split into three, the twins coming from the sides, blades glinting, while VolFogg himself came right at her, his boomerangs up and ready to strike.

She stood there, her chains gone but she stood still. She grinned as VolFogg charged at her, suddenly she pulled out duel blasters, firing away at the purple ninja bot. "That's it..." she whispered with a sneer. "Come and get me ninja bot..." She was unaware that her timer was counting down quickly, '6 minutes..."

VolFogg reacted with lightning speed, vaulting out of the way. He bounced off the ceiling, dashed along the wall, and then suddenly leaped off, changing direction in mid-air. He hit her with both feet, slamming her into the wall again and kicking the guns aside.

Mosa made contact with the wall, her body crashing against it as rubble flew everywhere. She landed on the ground, her form slumped against the shattered wall; her body shook from the adrenaline and excessive force of the battle. Mosa looked up to VolFogg with her blue optics blazing as she grinned. "Figured...as much from you... ninja bot..."

VolFogg only bared his dental plates in response, remaining still a bare moment before coming at her again, blades up and ready. The edges glinted, showing just how sharp they were. His footsteps were light and fast as he charged.

Her optics were in terror, suddenly closing and waiting for the impact until...'3...2..1..' The explosives set off, and the entire generator room was shaking as debris flew everywhere. The room was crumbling; the very aftershock could be felt upstairs.

VolFogg staggered as the floor heaved underfoot. Reflexively, he activated his built-in Mirror Coating to deflect the debris raining down on him. GunGlue and GunDober followed his example, GunGlue's rotors spinning rapidly, swatting debris aside. Volfogg covered his optics, turning toward Mosa.

Mosa already had the time to get from the floor, her body trying to gain balance on the crumbling floor that could collapse at any given moment. The pipes and large wiring were falling, tearing off the walls; loose wires were bouncing with electricity everywhere. A few lone pipes fell, one near Mosa's feet; too close, she felt her spark beat quicken when she saw a piece of the wall crumple over.

VolFogg dodged a large piece of ceiling, landing next to GunDober. The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder, debris bouncing off their backs and arms and helms. GunGlue joined them a moment later. VolFogg turned his head, looking toward Mosa again.

The femme had lurched over, feeling the ground shake, and soon regained her balance when she caught sight of the ceiling, there was a large pipe that was slowly cracking. The bolts that held it up were tearing, popping out of the walls like stray bullets; it was breaking down quickly, suddenly falling from the ceiling right over... "VOLFOGG!!" she charged at him at high speed, sprinting the whole way.

VolFogg looked up in surprise, only then noticing that the ceiling overhead was collapsing, and a large pipe was coming right for him. He had only a moment to stare at it and think, "This is going to hurt..." when he was suddenly pushed out of the way.

She let out a soundless gasp as the pipe ran straight through her, straight through chest, straight through her spark. She landed on her back, the pipe sticking out from her chest as energon and oil began oozing from her battered frame, sparks flying everywhere. She coughed and gasped for air, suddenly coughing up energon from her mouth and she gulped, trying to move.

VolFogg's boomerang flashed, cutting through the pipe. He knelt beside her, the Mirror Coating fading as he carefully lifted her off the floor. "You saved me... why?"

Mosa smiled, optics dimming, "Why do you think..." she shook, " ninja boy...?" She grasped onto his chest, like she was trying to cling to what bit of life she had left.

VolFogg was speechless, staring at her with wide optics. The twins settled nearby, watching in silence, not aggressive at all for a change. "Because... you..."

She brought a hand slowly to his silver face, staring into his optics as she traced his cheeks, his helm, "I'll never forget... that face of yours..." She smiled sadly, tears brimming at the edges of her optics. She traced his lips, softly with her thumb. "And those lips..."

"And I will never forget you." His voice was soft, barely audible, and there was a glitter of moisture in his optics. He took her other hand in his, cradling her against his chest.

Mosa let the tears run down her cheeks, her hand clutching his as the other was stroking his cheek as she tried to reach her head to his.

VolFogg lowered his head, optics glimmering with moisture. His thumb ran over her fingers gently, and he shifted her slightly in his arms so she could reach.

Slowly and softly, she brought his head down to kiss him softly and passionately. She held onto his hand tightly through the kiss, clinging to it, wanting ever more to live one. Her optics flickered, her grip was loosening but she continued to kiss on with VolFogg. Tears streaked her cheeks, her body shaking somewhat her optics suddenly dimmed, and her hand went limp...

VolFogg felt her go limp, and his head came up sharply. "Mosa... Mosa!" It was already too late; she was gone. He stared at her for a long moment, struggling to comprehend what had just happened. His optics burned, blurring his vision. His jaw worked silently for a long moment as his entire body trembled. Throwing back his head, he let out scream of utter agony and loss, almost startling the twins right out of their armor. Once the last echoes had died away, he lowered his head until his forehead touched hers, and that way he remained until the others arrived.


	28. The Crushing Blow

Chapter 28 ~ "The Crushing Blow"

Scavenger had opened the hatch to the crippled generator room, having felt the explosions he and Prime decided to check it out. They stumbled upon the sight of the femme bounty head being cradled by a silent VolFogg. Scavenger looked sadly on the ninja bot, walking over with heavy steps and stopping behind him; he placed a gentle hand on the ninja bot's shoulder.

VolFogg remained still for a long moment, and then moved, slowly raising his head. Dulled pink optics looked up into Scavenger's, and the light gleamed off the wet streaks running down the ninja's face. For a long moment, he said nothing. "You knew," he finally spoke, his voice hitching and raspy. "You knew it was her..."

Scavenger looked painfully down at the ninja bot, and nodded. Prime had took a step forward, "We all knew VolFogg, but we-" Scavenger held up a hand to silence the bot behind him, Prime nodded to the order. The older mech sighed, staring down at VolFogg with sympathy, his pipe smoking in his mouth.

VolFogg looked up at them for a long moment, and then looked back down at the shell in his arms. Placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, he finally let go, rising to his feet and stepping back, turning away. GunDober and GunGlue eased over to him, making soft sounds. GunGlue placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. The purple mech didn't react to the touch at all.

"VolFogg..." Scavenger called out flatly, taking a puff of his pipe. He turned towards the purple ninja bot, "Even if we had told you... would you really had believed us?"

"I doubt it," was the soft response. "I would have denied it. But now... having seen with my own two eyes..." His entire body trembled, and he looked on the verge of collapse.

Scavenger didn't need to hesitate, before he could fall Scavenger caught VolFogg quickly, he looked down at the purple ninja bot and sighed. Scavenger didn't turn away from the bot in his arms. "Prime..." he called. "Get the femme, make sure she's covered up or something... and take her to the Solstice Law Enforcers Station. You can pick up the pay there..." He heaved the ninja bot, motioning the twins to follow him. "Taking him back to the ship..." And without another word he was gone.

GunGlue and GunDober followed without a sound. VolFogg had gone completely limp, optics dark, but the tears were still coming, and shudders still ran through him. Clearly he wasn't going to be of much use for at least a few days.

Optimus could feel the pain, the sorrow as he went to pick up the lifeless body of Mosa. His optics saddened, turning around to walk out the generator room, a trail of energon following his every step.

****************

Scavenger had settled VolFogg in the medical bay after arriving to the ship, he was damaged but not to the extreme. Without saying a word he began to repair the bot, limb by ever so motionless limb; when he was finished he sat back on the chair and looked out the window, still nightfall. He lit up another smoke with his pipe and leaned against the chair looking down at the bot. "The next few days… are not going to be easy..."

"Not at all," GunDober agreed. The bike-mech's entire frame shook as he let out a sigh. "He loved her. She loved him. That pipe that killed her... would have gone right through him had she not pushed him out of the way and taken the blow." The Gun Robot looked at his team leader. VolFogg's purple paint looked faded. "He's in shock... never has he been in this kind of situation before."

Optimus came back to the ship covered, walking in looking tired. He handed Scavenger the chip and headed for the washroom to wash away the last traces of energon.

Scavenger narrowed his optics, connecting an energon feed to VolFogg's arm to make sure he gets the energy he needed when he awakes. The older mech leaned his head back, smoked on his pipe, blowing out a puff, how messed up life can be. The next few days went by, and there was the feeling of death through the halls of the ship; Scavenger had been checking up on VolFogg on and off each day.

VolFogg remained unresponsive for almost a week, despite the twins' attempts to get him to wake up. GunDober and GunGlue were rarely seen away from his side, staying with him and keeping him company. Between the two of them, they washed and polished his armor, though his color remained dull for days. Then, finally, it darkened back to its usual shade, and his optics came online.

Scavenger's arms were crossed firmly, his pipe smoking lightly this time when VolFogg finally came around. He smiled, "Nice to see you among the living..." he patted the bot's arm. "How do you feel?"

"Like scrap," was the response as VolFogg sat up. His shoulders drooped for a moment, then slowly straightened. The twins were immediately right there, letting him lean on them.

Scavenger had smiled a small smile, "You sure about that Ninja bot?" He handed VolFogg a glass of regular energon. "Oh and don't drink so quickly, could get sick."

VolFogg took the glass, sipping at it. He was quite aware of two pairs of worried green optics watching every move he made, and he could feel GunDober's practically inaudible purring. Looking from one to the other, he smiled weakly at them, letting them know he was grateful for their support.

Scavenger patted the ninja bots shoulder, "You think you can sleep on your own tonight without me having to check to see if you died or not?" he snickered.

VolFogg smiled slightly, looking pointedly at the twins flanking him. "I'm never on my own, Scavenger... and I highly doubt they're going to be straying more than a few meters away from me for the next couple of months."

GunDober snorted while GunGlue nodded. "Got that right," the heli-mech agreed.

Scavenger smirked, taking a puff of his pipe and then leaning over to help VolFogg up, "Let's get you to a more comfortable surrounding..." He led the purple bot out of the medbay and down the hall, all the while staring back at him every few minutes. I know this is just your cover up to hide your true feelings ninja bot...

"I feel like a part of me has been ripped out," was the soft response. "It hurts a great deal... it will take time for this pain to fade." GunDober purred softly, rubbing his shoulder.

Scavenger had arrived at the ninja bots' shared quarters, setting him down on the berth and allowing the twins to sit on either side. The older mech smiled, his old face showing a glint of softness, "Make sure...to cherish the times you had with her VolFogg..." he said.

The purple mech nodded, settling onto the berth and laying on his side. GunGlue leaned against his back while GunDober sidled closer to lean against his side. VolFogg lay still for a moment, and then pulled the tiger-helmed mech closer, needing the contact. GunDober leaned against him, purring softly. Both of the twins wrapped their arms around their team leader and just held him.

Scavenger had closed the door to the ninja bots room, he sighed with his pipe hanging from the side of his mouth.


	29. New Package

Chapter 29 ~ "New Package"

Optimus onlined his optics and shook his head in the washroom, golden optics blinking. He took a breath and turned off the water, grabbing a towel to dry himself off. He stepped out of the wash-rack and grabbed his armor while the room was still steaming with hot air. He was still coated with condensation when he left for his quarters.

When entering his quarters, he slapped the towel on his desk chair and went to sit on his recharge birth. He sighed heavily, his face burying itself in his hands, "Slagging hell," he whispered.

He looked up through his fingers, golden optics staring at the floor before shifting around his quarters. They landed on his closet, which sat with the door propped opened slightly. His expression turned from tired to scrutinizing, his face frowning at the closet door.

It was in there, the very thing that still linked him to Cybertron, to the Autobots…

Prime's frown deepened, golden optics glowing due to just sheer disgust. It ate at him every time, but he could not just get away from that damn thing.

With a heavy sigh, he looked back to his desk to see today's edition of the news playing on his monitor. Prime blinked, seeing something pop on the screen that proved interesting. There was a story about the young Autobot Commander having another meeting at a fancy hotel or banquet.

Golden optics blinked, widening when staring at the screen. Realization had hit him hard, considering the fact that he was now digging through his closet. He found an empty box and some fragile wrapping, perfect for the package he was going to sent…

****************

Prime arrived back at the ship, feeling content though restless. He had accomplished something he'd never be willing to do, and thanks to the magic of the postal system he made things a little easier for him. He felt like he could breathe, stretching his arms out over his head and smiled.

He suddenly felt a pair of eyes watching him, and found a certain yellow bot looking up at him when he looked down.

"You okay?" RaiRyu asked, a little worried.

Prime blinked, smiling down at his charge, "Yeah," he patted the yellow yuusha's head, "Yeah, I'm fine Rai…"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Scavenger spoke up from down the hallway, smoking his pipe.

Prime looked up, smirking, "Nah, you're not," he said, patting RaiRyu's head once more. He blinked up at the elder mech, "How is he?"

Scavenger took a puff of his pipe and frowned, "Might take a few days, maybe weeks..."

"Most likely," was the surprising agreement from Goldymarg. "I saw the look on his face... I'm not as dense as I appear. He was hurt badly by what happened. Healing is not going to be easy... but he does have support. Or didn't you notice how clingy his team has become."

Prime had jumped with RaiRyu clinging to him, "How long have you been there???"

Scavenger chuckled. "He's big, he's orange, and he's been sitting at the counter in the lounge drinking for the past hour Prime, where have YOU been?"

Prime glared back up at Scavenger and settled RaiRyu on the seat next to him. "He may have his teammates but it's going to take a lot more than that..." Prime knew from experience.

Goldymarg shook his head. "You're missing the point. What those two have is deeper than just the bonds of the team. Why do you think they hated it when VolFogg went to see the female?" He tilted his head, waiting to see if they were going to figure it out, or if he had to spell it out for them.

"I understand that..." Prime blinked sadly, and Scavenger nodded along in agreement, "We all do, but losing your first love is...its beyond all compare."

Scavenger shrugged, "You did just fine..." He felt the glare upon his helm from Prime, RaiRyu looked between them obviously confused.

"Well, he won't be alone," the huge orange robot with the hammer on his back, pointed out. "He has them, and they're not going to stray very far from him. What they have for him is love, and damn strong at that."

Scavenger nodded, puffing out a smoke, "Right..." then he stretched his arm, "Well... he better get better soon. We have training to start with ALL of you...." He looked up at the large orange bot, "That includes you cheese-puff...."

Goldymarg bristled. "What was that?!"

Scavenger smirked with the pipe between his teeth, "You heard me... cheese-puff..." he saw Prime snicker wildly, "We have a plan for all of you boys, you're going to be training under our supervision...."

Scavenger grinned, "You've been warned...."

Goldymarg's right optic rim twitched, and the hammer on his back seemed to glimmer ever so slightly. "I'll have you know I'm plenty strong! And if GaoGaiGar was here I'd show you just what I'm capable of!"

Scavenger had crossed his arms, sucking onto his pipe and blowing out a smoke ever so smoothly, "And I can show you..." he said with a smirk, "...what I am capable off..."

Prime was looking between the two, waving his arms at GoldyMarg with the sign, 'Don't do it! Don't to it!'

HyoRyu walked over to the orange mech, looking him right in the optics. Goldymarg looked at him for a long moment, and then subsided with an irritated hiss, turning back to his drink.

The blue twin turned to look at Scavenger and Prime. "Goldy, as you've noticed, is pretty easy to provoke... but he's not lying about his strength." He reached up to tap the hammer on Goldymarg's back.

Scavenger tapped his pipe, "Never said that he wasn't strong enough..." he took another smoke, "Just he needs to use it more stealthily, less noise and more silence kid..." Scavenger puffed a smoke, "You all need to work this, your sharpshooting skills, your attacks, everything. And now that you have sparks, its going to be much more interesting with what you can REALLY do."

"Goldymarg's most powerful attack is useless without GaoGaiGar," HyoRyu told him. "GaoGaiGar is the only one he can connect to, the only one who can use this." He tapped the hammer again. "Haven't you wondered at all what this is? Because it does come off."

"Besides the hammer blue boy, there is much more that all of you can do..." Scavenger looked down at the smaller bot, "You have the power of ice, before you can only do so much because you would have to achieve a certain energy level to do any attack. Now with your sparks, the power is endless, and there is so much more techniques that you all can do..." Scavenger pointed to GoldyMarg,

"Cheese Puff here can learn how to use his strength without having to pummel anything, without even damaging anything..." he grinned, "Trust me kiddies, once we get started you'll see what I'm talking about."

HyoRyu nodded. "And should GaoGaiGar ever find us here, you will see the Goldion Hammer... Hikari Ni Nare." He tilted his head. "I, personally, look forward to the training."

Scavenger nodded, "Good... and you might wanna learn how to make ice packs," he chuckled. "You and the others are going to be hurting after we get started. As soon as VolFogg and the wonder twins are up and ready for this, we start immediately."

HyoRyu nodded.


	30. Ninja Can Be More NINJA

Chapter 30 ~ "Ninja can be more NINJA"

GunDober purred softly as he settled against the purple mech's chest plate, resting his tiger's-head helm against VolFogg's shoulder and wrapping his arms around his team leader. VolFogg held the black-and-white, needing the contact. His optics were powered down, and he was trembling ever so slightly. GunGlue settled against his back, churring softly in time with GunDober's purr, both doing their best to comfort the taller mech.

One of the hawk wings on GunGlue's helm twitched slightly, and he began rubbing his palm over VolFogg's arm, his fingers playing gently with the tire on the purple mech's elbow. VolFogg tightened his hold on GunDober, resting his cheek against black metal. The tiger-helmed mech purred, easing as close as he could.

****************

It took a few days for VolFogg to reappear. The twins were with him constantly, and he was finally realizing the depths of their feelings for him. And why they had been so jealous of Mosa. They were starting to work through the pain in his spark, doing their best to fill the empty spot inside him.

Scavenger had down his rounds, checking up on VolFogg and making sure he had the occasional quote that could help him through the day. The older mech patted him on the shoulder; "Wanna join me for a drink?" He was about to sit down on the couch, a bottle of high grade and two glasses in his hand.

"Sure." VolFogg padded over, his two shadows, as always, right behind him. They settled to either side of the purple mech, leaning against him. Three pairs of optics, two green and one pink, fixed on the old mech.

Scavenger had filled the glasses with the warm high grade, passing around the glasses, "Should be a decent flavor..." he took a sip, "Was able to get it from that banquet..."

VolFogg took the glass. "Thanks." He sipped at it, taking his time. Getting overcharged was the last thing he needed. GunDober and GunGlue followed his example, going very easy with the high-grade.

Scavenger took a few more sips, "So I was thinking..." he twisted the glass in his hand, "When the three of you are finally up to it, we'll be starting the training that you so nicely asked me to give all of you..." he snickered and sipped on his glass again.

"He is getting better," GunGlue commented. "Though he does still carry a lot of pain in his spark. Still, we should be able to start the training soon..."

Heavy footsteps alerted them to Goldymarg crossing the room on his way back to his quarters. The orange mech looked over at the ninja team. "Quit beating around the bush and take him already! He needs it!" GunDober promptly threw the nearest handy object at the larger mech's head. Goldymarg ducked, continuing on his way.

Scavenger frowned, "Get your ass a can of high grade and keep your trap shut cheese puff..." He sipped on his high grade, looking back at VolFogg. He saw the look on his face, a calm but remorseful look; the older mech sighed, "VolFogg..." he said softly, "I know the pain is still weighing on your shoulders, but you must understand that there will be more out there..."

VolFogg shook himself. "I do know... though will my shadows let any of them near me is the question." He indicated the twins, chuckling softly at their negative whistle. "We are a tight team... and now we are becoming even closer." He rubbed the cat ears on GunDober's helm, running his fingertips along the edge of one of GunGlue's hawk wings. Both leaned into him.

Scavenger smirked, "I can see, gonna be easier with that in battle but a helluva lot harder when one of you finds a good femme..." he chuckled, gulping down the rest of his drink. "As for training, I won't start until I know that he's ready... a pain filled spark is not the best things to deal with when going through my kinda training." Scavenger gave his optics at a side-glance to a certain Autobot

The ninja mech coughed slightly. "I... don't think they're interested in femmes... and dealing with these two is going to be enough of a handful for me." His faint smile widened slightly.

Scavenger smiled, leaning back on the couch, "Dealing with all you runts is a fragging nightmare for me..." he groaned, "Cheese puff over there and the Flame thrower especially..."

"That's Goldy for you," GunDober said between contented purrs, leaning into VolFogg's hand like the cat he was built to resemble. "And EnRyu runs hot, both literally and with his personality. Though HyoRyu balances him out most of the time. Goldy's A.I. was based off one of the humans of GGG, hotheaded and not great at following orders. But once you get through to him, he'll listen."

Scavenger smirked, "Yeah with a good beat down, he thinks his strength is good enough already. I would like to think not..." he sighed, taking the bottle of high grade and drinking out of it. He looked directly at VolFogg, "So Ninja bot..." he said, "What would like to do?"

"I haven't given it much thought," VolFogg admitted, looking at GunDober as the black tiger's-head helm butted against his hand. "These two have given it more thought than I, but even they aren't sure. We are what we are; there must be a use for our talents out there somewhere."

Scavenger took another swig of the bottle, "Trust me, there is..." he smirked, "I was actually referring to your training, future careers are for later kiddy." He tapped on the bottle, "There's a few new things I want to teach you three especially, since your skills can equip to these techniques. I'm pretty sure you can make copies of yourselves to fool the enemy?"

The armor on VolFogg's shoulders rose to reveal his built-in hologram projectors. "Using my Projection Beam in conjunction with my Fog Gas, I can create multiple images of myself, and just about anything else, in the fog. Though they aren't solid, and can be dispersed fairly easily." He finally withdrew his hands from the twins, to sounds of disappointment. GunDober caught his hand before he could pull it away completely, swiping his tongue across VolFogg's fingertips with a purr. VolFogg's response was a true smile.

Scavenger blinked, throwing a bottle-cap through the holo-gram, "All fine and dandy..." he murmured, "But I was thinking of more... solid copies." Scavenger grinned...

VolFogg deactivated his emitters, the armor settling back into place. He tilted his head. "That's possible? And you could teach me how to do it?" Both of the twins mirrored the tilt of his head, looking at Scavenger curiously.

Scavenger took another swig, "Yup, with your sparks you have endless energy now..." he looked at the three ninja bots, "Duplicating a solid image is particularly easy when you have the right skill, but you've got to be willing to actually doing it." Putting the almost empty bottle down on the small table, he stretched his arms. "And that's not all I can teach you... there's also the art of fusing..."

"Fusing?" GunGlue repeated, blinking. "What is that?" VolFogg looked over at Scavenger, wanting to know the answer to that question as well.

Scavenger smirked standing up from the couch and in front of the holo-vid, with out even a twitch of his face, without even changing his position on the ground, Scavenger began to actually... sink into the floor beneath him. He crossed his arms snickering as he disappeared into the floor...

Three jaws dropped as the ninja mechs stared, GunGlue's rotors arching forward in surprise. VolFogg stared at the spot, trying to comprehend what he was seeing. How had the old mech done that? He could hardly believe it... and Scavenger was willing to teach them how to do it...

There was a chuckle echoing around the room. "Surprised?" he said, voice emanating from everywhere. It wasn't until Scavenger reappeared from the ceiling and landed on the floor behind the ninja bots. He dusted himself off. "Remind me to get Sideswipe to clean out the vents of this ship..."

All three jumped, startled. They gawked at him, optics wide. "We didn't even know that was possible!" GunDober exclaimed. "And you can teach us how to do that?"

Scavenger snickered. "That's because you were stuck with the humans all your lives," He straightened his back. "And yes I can, I've taught all of my best students this technique, Prime is one but he doesn't use the technique all that much. May take a bit but you three will get the hang of it."

"That is something we would really like to learn." GunGlue nodded. "It will come in very handy on the hunt, and allow movement in and out of dangerous areas unseen."

"That may be..." he scratched his chin, "There's a limit on what you can fuse with, and water is one of them obviously. Anything organic is impossible for any mech to fuse with, thank Primus that a lot of the places in the Universe are made of metal and other such." The older mech crossed his arms, "There is more techniques involved but that's for later, we also have to teach all of you new sharpshooting techniques, disguising, silence interlacements, etc. The list goes on and on."

VolFogg considered that. "Then... as soon as we are ready... as soon as I am ready... we can begin." The twins nodded, each wrapping an arm around him, leaning against him. He slid his arms around their shoulders, holding them close.

"One more thing..." Scavenger cracked his neck, "I'm not the kinda guy who likes to wake up bright and early, so let me sleep and I MIGHT go easy on all of you..." He darted a "death-warning" glare at the three.

"We aren't really morning mechs, either," GunDober pointed out. "As anyone who's tried dragging us out of bed in the morning has figured out," He smiled wryly; Sideswipe had been kicked at, snapped at, chased out, and had once narrowly avoided being fired on while stirring the ninja team in the morning.

Scavenger chuckled, "All right then..." he looked over the three ninja bots, "Just tell me when you're ready and I'll get the whole team ready Ninja boy."

VolFogg nodded. "We will let you know." He looked at his glass of high-grade, taking another sip, then tilted his head at Scavenger. "Out of curiosity, why do you call me that?"

Scavenger smirked, "Cause in my old age it makes it easier to remember names..." he yawned, "Now if you would excuse me, I'm headed for recharge. You three should do the same..." He yawned once more, stretching his arms and then heading out of the room, "Hey wonder twins, make sure he's bundled up tight tonight all right!"


	31. Ninja Love

Chapter 31 ~ "Ninja LOVE"

The twins grinned at him, nodding. VolFogg looked from one to the other, allowing himself to be led back to their quarters. The three settled onto their bunk, GunGlue and GunDober settling close. He looked at them curiously, then almost jumped as gentle hands ran over his armor, and GunGlue leaned in close against his back to nuzzle his helm.

GunDober was purring loudly, rubbing against VolFogg's legs like the big kitty he was. He slowly crawled up VolFogg's leg, still purring and playful, and quickly snapped a nip at Vol's nose in a playful gesture.

VolFogg had to chuckle softly at the black-and-white, reaching up to stroke and knead that sensitive place behind the ears of his helm. GunGlue chirred softly, wrapping his arms around the purple mech, tilting his head to nip and kiss along VolFogg's helm edge and jaw. The slightly taller mech trembled slightly for a moment, then it subsided, and he reached back to touch GunGlue. GunDober whined and pawed at VolFogg, not wanting to be left out.

VolFogg's other hand stroked and kneaded behind GunDober's cat ears, a touch that never failed to make the bike mech melt into a purring heap. He stroked the lines of the tiger helm, then his hand slid lower to caress a black shoulder, around the base of the police lights. GunGlue mewed slightly as deft fingers slid behind one of his helm wings, panting against VolFogg's neck.

He curled up next to VolFogg, purring and laying fully down like a lazy house cat. He purred and moved his head in time with VolFogg's petting. He nuzzled at Vol's hip, taking gentle nips at the plating there, and let his glossa run over the armor before dipping down into a gap of his codpiece. He increased his purr and smiled to himself as VolFogg let out a surprised gasp.

The unexpected lick made the purple mech's entire body quiver, and he looked down at GunDober in surprise, continuing to stroke his helm. GunGlue exchanged grins with his twin, and then resumed working on their team leader's neck. Black hands stroked over VolFogg's chest plate, finding all the sensitive places. One of the perks of being a combiner was that they knew each others' bodies as well as their own, and they knew exactly where all the sensitive places were.

GunDober slowly removed the codpiece with gentle fingers. As soon as it was free he attacked VolFogg's interface with his glossa and mouth. He licked down before coming to the domed shape, swirling his glossa around it and the tiny hole there. He swallowed VolFogg's interface in one go. He held down his commander's hips as they tried to surge up off the berth.

VolFogg let out a sharp gasp, optics flickering. "Dare I even ask... where you learned that?" he managed to get out, fondling the bike mech's cat ears, caressing along the seams and applying gentle pressure in all the right places to make GunDober's circuits tingle. GunGlue snickered against his shoulder, and then captured VolFogg's lips as the taller mech turned his head to look at him. One black hand wandered down to caress VolFogg's skidplate, and the result was a gasp into GunGlue's mouth

GunDober looked at him and grinned. "From Megatron." He dipped back down to continue on with his tasty treat.

VolFogg blinked rapidly, then shook his head slightly, gasping again as his hips bucked toward GunDober. GunGlue massaged his hindquarters, tracing over the seams lightly, sending tingles through the ninja's circuits. VolFogg let out a soft moan, stroking both black helms firmly, frustrated by his inability to bend his arm far enough to touch the black-and-white form against his back.

GunDober wasted no time to take advantage of VolFogg's raised hips; he attacked the twin spheres below VolFogg's interface and giggled at the high squeak he got from his team leader.

VolFogg's voice shot up at least an octave, his body spasming several times from the unexpected sensations. GunGlue chuckled softly in his audio, removing VolFogg's skidplate and tossing it aside. A moment later he was stroking the thinner metal underneath, ignoring the uncomfortable pressure growing behind his own codpiece as he nipped and licked at VolFogg's back.

He ripped off his own codpiece and began to rub their swollen rods together he roared and mewed like Galeon did. He leaned forward and kissed VolFogg with utmost gentleness.

VolFogg returned the kiss, slightly more fiercely. He nipped at GunDober's lower lip, gasping into his mouth. One grey-and-purple hand stroked along GunDober's back, brushing over all the sensitive seams, drawing him closer. GunGlue finally removed his own codpiece, rubbing his interface against VolFogg's haunches, and the response was a soft whine as VolFogg leaned back toward him.

GunDober lay on top of VolFogg for a moment before removing his skidplate and twisting VolFogg so now he lay on top of GunDober, chest to back. It was clear what the little GunMachine wanted.

The sudden change of positioning caught VolFogg by surprise. He blinked for a moment, looking at GunDober for a moment. GunGlue climbed over him from behind, crooning, running his hands along VolFogg's sides. The heli-mech nipped along the edge of an armor seam, gently guiding the taller mech into position. The purple mech positioned himself, hands on the bunk to brace himself. He panted against GunDober's neck, steam escaping through various vents.

GunDober purred. Turning his head, he licked at VolFogg's lips and nuzzled his face with the snout on his helm. He chirped at GunGlue, who chirped back. GunDober pulled himself up a little more so VolFogg's interface was level with his after port.

The purple mech nipped at GunDober's helm, pressing the tip of his interface to the bike mech's rear port. A soft moan escaped as GunGlue began to enter him from behind, and then he followed the heli-mech's lead. GunGlue nipped and licked at the light bar on VolFogg's back, knowing how sensitive it was around the edges. VolFogg moaned again as he slid into GunDober's body, pleasure from two sources threatening to overwhelm him.

GunDober hissed at the small amount of pain that came with VolFogg's entrance. He breathed deeply for a few moments, then sighed and relaxed as the pain dulled away.

VolFogg made a humming sound, nuzzling the black helm. Slowly, he slid all the way in, gasping for air to cool his overheating systems. GunGlue wrapped his arms around the purple mech, purring, stroking his chest and torso. The ninja arched his back into GunGlue, burying his face against GunDober's neck, body quivering.

GunDober moved to a better angle and pushed back, waiting for VolFogg to start thrusting. He whined up at GunGlue to get moving. GunGlue responded with a chitter, and then began moving, slowly at first and then picking up speed. VolFogg moved with him, thrusting into GunDober, his breath coming in pants. His optics flickered before going dark, and he shifted slightly, following GunGlue's lead as the heli-mech picked up speed. GunGlue braced himself against the purple-armored back, nuzzling the sensitive light bar.

GunDober gripped the berth and gritted his dental plates. He thrusted backward to meet VolFogg's hips. He whined up at VolFogg, not in pleading but in pleasure. He kissed at VolFogg's lips wanting their attention.

VolFogg returned the kiss fiercely, nipping at GunDober's lips, bracing his hands on the berth to either side of the bike mech. He picked up the pace, matching GunGlue, who was making soft, chirping moans against his back. Black hands stroked his sides and thighs as the heli-mech nipped and nibbled along VolFogg's back. His rotors were spinning, blowing cooling air over them, helping to keep their temperatures down.

He licked at VolFogg's lips, and then slipped his glossa into the warm depths of his mouth. He battled with his glossa in a dance of domination. He growled playfully as he felt VolFogg's hand sneaking down to his dangling interface that was void of attention.

VolFogg purred, shifting his weight slightly and freeing one hand. He ran it along GunDober's chest, stroking over the smooth metal. Gentle fingers stroked along the seams and sensitive places, working lower, until he stroked along the length of the bike mech's interface. GunGlue's probing glossa found a sensitive spot along the edge of VolFogg's light bar, and he let out a soft cry.

GunDober yipped as he felt warm and gentle fingers close around his interface. He bucked madly into the warm hand, making needing noises. "Speed up GunGlue! It's like the stone age down here!" he said to his twin.

"Patience, my dear brother!" was the response from the heli-mech. GunGlue licked at the spot he'd found again, getting another interesting sound from VolFogg. He picked up his pace, moving faster and harder, and the purple mech matched him, panting heavily. His hand moved faster over GunDober's interface, thumb stroking over the tip.

GunDober yowled and began to move faster chanting the words 'harder' or 'faster' over and over again. He felt the tingle at the base of his rod, and he let his teammate know he was approaching release.

GunGlue made an oddly high-pitched grunt, bracing himself against VolFogg's back, moving as fast and hard as his body would let him. VolFogg moaned against GunDober's back, thankful that GunGlue's rotors were going; the wind was helping keep him from overheating. His hand moved faster as well, stroking and kneading.

His optics began to flicker; he was so close..soon..he gritted his dental plates and seemed to tremble like he was in agony but it was far from it. Finally he reared his head back and roared as loud as he could as he came his voice not of a mech but a beast.

VolFogg's back arched as GunDober's climax triggered his own, letting out a sharp cry as he emptied himself into the black-and-white. His entire body spasmed as he rode the waves of pleasure, optics flickering madly. GunGlue let out a hawk's scream as he too reached his climax, rotors spinning so fast he was almost lifting off. Steam hissed from vents on his own body and VolFogg's.

As GunDober slowly came down from his high his optics flickered off and he fell from his hands and knees offline.

VolFogg managed to keep himself from collapsing on top of GunDober, waiting for GunGlue to move before gently sliding out and dropping onto the berth between the twins. GunGlue's rotors were still spinning, sending cool air over all three of them and helping keep their internal temperatures in check. Pink optics flickered several times, and then faded as VolFogg slipped into recharge.


	32. Let The Training Begin

Chapter 31 ~ "Let the Training begin…"

The next morning came quickly, and there was a knock on the ninja Yuusha's door. "Hey bots!" figured it would be Sideswipe, "Wakey wakey! Breakfast is ready so you get your asses up!"

There was an incomprehensible mumble from the pile on the berth, and VolFogg just turned over and covered his audio with his arm. The twins hadn't so much as stirred, one purr-snoring softly, the other making a faint whistling sound. The purple mech didn't feel like moving, ignoring Sideswipe and going right back to sleep.

Sideswipe stood out side the door, his lips twisted, his hands on his hips, and his right foot tapping lightly.

Sideswipe grunted, frowning deeply. "All right that's it..." He opened the door and barged in on the three ninja bots.

He turned on the very annoying-head-splitting-could-make-your-optics-fry overhead light of the room. He clapped his hands a few times. "Chop chop! Prime says we got some work to do! And may I remind you, that you and the other bots have schooling starting today?"

Again, neither of the twins so much as stirred, completely out of it. VolFogg, almost asleep again, awoke, and he wasn't happy. Grabbing for the nearest object, he twisted and threw, pinning Sideswipe with a glare that could scare the bolts off a Zonder at a hundred paces. "We said we would inform him when we were ready," he hissed. "Now, GET OUT!"

Sideswipe yipped and ran out, unaware of the codpiece that sat on his helm horn. He ran into the kitchen where everyone was sitting and eating. He looked at everyone and they looked at him. "What...?"

Scavenger's optics twitched, Prime had slapped his forehead while the rest of the Yuusha were snickering, and Megatron had practically fallen out of his seat in a fit of laughter. Scavenger casually walked over, swiping off the codpiece and showing it to Sideswipe. "Something you're not telling us Sides?" he grinned, noting the different-colored codpiece hanging in between his fingers.

Goldymarg, managing to eat his own breakfast even without having a mouth, blinked at the piece of armor. "That's GunDober's, judging from the shape. Let me guess... VolFogg bounced it off your skull from across the room. That mech is definitely not a real early bird, and he does have a wicked temper when provoked."

"Yeah! Yeah! He threw something at my head and yelled at me. He was mad." Sideswipe said as he waved his arms. It took him a few moments to understand what had happened between the twins and VolFogg. "Oh my... EWWW! And I walked in there and they were... and they had... EWWW! " He ran out of the room and headed for the washracks.

Scavenger snickered wildly, twirling the codpiece in his hand as he walked down the hallways towards the ninjabots' room. He opened the door to find the pile of bots still sleeping, he threw the codpiece at the pile, it landed on whoever's head making them jolt. The older mech crossed his arms. "All right bots, time to wake up..."

Pink optics glared at him from somewhere under the heap. GunGlue twitched, and then settled right back into deep sleep. GunDober didn't even stir. "Go. Away."

Scavenger pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Come on you three, time to wake up..." he walked over and tugged at VolFogg's arm, "Its almost 11:30 in the damn morning and we have work to do before we go for take off." He tapped the purple bots helm a few times; "If you don't wake up I'll get Hyo in here to freeze your asses up..."

VolFogg took a swipe at him, muttering something uncomplimentary under his breath. There were dark smudges under his optics; he was still exhausted. How long he'd be able to stay on his feet was up for grabs. The way he moved indicated that he was sore and unsteady, and he'd probably collapse shortly. The twins never even stirred.

Scavenger groaned; that does it. He picked up VolFogg, throwing the bot over his shoulder and then picked up the twins, holding them in each arm. He carried them out of their quarters, down the hall; pass the commons room, down another flight, and straight to the wash-racks. They were still too tired to even respond coherently, so Scavenger didn't have a problem placing them in a shower stall. With one quick movement of his hand, he turned on the cold water and the freezing liquid shot out of the shower head, soaking the threw ninja.

The response was three shrieks and several bursts of chain gunfire. The twins were not safe to startle awake like that. VolFogg came to spitting mad, optics blazing redder than pink, both boomerangs out, blades glinting wickedly. There were good reasons why GGG had developed the saying "let sleeping ninjas be".

Scavenger had to duck behind the doorway until the gunfire and raging boomerangs came to an end. He looked into the wash-racks, seeing the damage and sighed, knowing he would have to fix this mess later. He walked over to the three ninjas, and snickered, "Well, nice to see that the three of you are awake."

Three very intense glares fixed on him with enough force to strip the paint right off his armor. The twins were tensed to open fire again, and the blades in VolFogg's hands glowed with the Mirror Coating; if he threw those blades would go through the walls like tissue paper. All three were very clearly pissed... and they were still missing their lower armor.

Scavenger chuckled, "Good..." He threw them some towels, "Now get your armor on, I need to fix this mess..." he groaned, looking down at VolFogg. "And if you're ready, we can start today after take off..."

VolFogg glowered, drying off and fastening the towel around his waist before stalking back to his quarters for his armor. GunGlue followed without a word, just one nastier look. "The question is, can we stay awake long enough to start," GunDober grumbled as he followed his brother and team leader.

Scavenger gave the order that all the Yuusha meet in the ST room (simulation training), where 'orientation' was about to begin. Scavenger entered with arms crossed, looking over the group of bots.

VolFogg yawned, shifting his weight from foot to foot. GunGlue and GunDober were semi-alert, muttering under their breath in their own language. Goldymarg stood off to one side, arms crossed over his chest, clearly scowling under his facemask.

Scavenger smirked. "All right, seeing that we're all present, lets begin..." He cracked his knuckles. "You all have your form of combat, each of you are very skilled and very intellectual on what you are capable of. However..." He looked from Megatron, Prime, then back to the bots, "Now that you all have sparks, the options of what you can do has increased. You can combine without having to reach a certain energy level, you all have the power of elements that can be used in many techniques to the extreme," he smirked, looking over the bots. "What I am going to teach you all is the techniques of the ancient Cybertronian Martial arts, the training WILL be hard and I DO NOT like to put up with an whiners, understand?" Scavenger saw their entire heads nod in reply, "Good..."

VolFogg crossed his arms, looking at the four Ryu brothers. "So you can form GekiRyuJin and ChoRyuJin any time, SympaRate be damned. And form GenRyuJin and GouRyuJin without needing The Power to do it. That's worth some practice... you haven't combined in months."

Optimus sat there with his legs crossed. He watched them with proud optics. "I will be teaching you the Transformers history and how to become a ace sharp shooter. Megatron is in charge of your hand to hand. Sideswipe will be teaching you the ways of our people and how to act and speak around them. Which means this will require your full attention and all your effort. We understood?"

The bots nodded.

Megatron snickered, "Hand to Hand DECEPTICON combat that is..." He grinned wildly, cracking his knuckles.

Sideswipe rolled his optics. "And our culture studies will be gone over thoroughly," minus a few details, he looked back at Prime and Megatron, "Not to mention that your weapons are gonna need some upgrading as well..." He grinned, "I have a few killer ideas in mind."

VolFogg nodded to Optimus and Megatron, looking at the Ryu twins again. "If you don't practice occasionally you might lose the ability, you do know that, I hope." The ninja mech looked back to the older mechs. "We are no strangers to hard training."

Optimus rolled his optics, "Have fun," he waved off as he headed out of the room.

Scavenger chuckled, watching as Prime left the room looking back upon the group of Yuusha. "Today we'll start off with a simple work out, nothing big but just something to get the joints going..." He snapped his fingers and a simulation ran its program, bringing up corridors and such. "Run the track through the maze, you will be timed and you will be monitored." He smirked. "Good luck."

The ninja team was moving in a flash, weaving through the maze. Keeping their optics open for any traps or hidden hazards. Instead of just staying on the floor, they bounced off the walls as they moved, never keeping still for very long.

Scavenger had crossed his arm, tapping his chin while smirking, "This should be interesting..." He watched the Yuusha run through the maze at their own pace, through the corridors and over the walls. Megatron stood next to him, obviously pleased as Prime was watching out for any signs of fatigue on the bots, and Sideswipe was monitoring the movement of the maze from his place at the controls.

It was very obvious that training would be vigorous and hard, and these Yuusha were willing to go to their limits to pass their training. And the Cybertronians were willing to do whatever it took to make sure they got there. So, through the test and training sessions, the classes, the shooting ranges, the upgraded weaponry, and the constant lectures of discipline, the Yuusha were rising through their training levels. It wasn't until two years later that they were about to take their final test....


End file.
